Not all pleased with fourth dog idea

MOSES LAKE - As the Moses Lake City Council moved ahead to allow blind or disabled people a chance at having a fourth comfort dog Tuesday, two people spoke against it.

During public comments, two citizens asked the council not to permit anyone to have an additional dog.

"I am here to beg for the ordinance on pets to remain the same or less," citizen Mary Block said.

She said her neighbors own more than three dogs resulting in eight dogs in the vicinity of her home.

Block said she is woken up at all hours of the night by excessive barking.

"I'm retired, I should be able to kind of choose when I get to wake up," she said.

Block claims an odor of dog feces permeates from her neighbors' property while she is outside gardening.

"I think neighborhoods are for humans," she said. "It's not real pleasant when you go out to work and all you smell is dog and you see a lot of piles."

Citizen Emily Webster said she is not surrounded by many dogs but the dogs near her keep her up at night with their barking.

"How do we prevent the barking dog syndrome for these folks that are being bothered?" Mayor Ron Covey asked.

Moses Lake Police Department Capt. Jim Jenkins said officers will respond at all hours for animal related complaints. If the dog is not barking when the officer is there, the owner can be warned but no enforcement action can be taken.

He recommends citizens call 509-762-1160 rather than 9-1-1 to report non-emergency animal calls for service.

Councilmember Richard Pearce said he had a similar problem at a previous residence he lived in involving one dog who barked continuously.

He said eliminating the possibility of a fourth comfort dog probably won't eliminate the issue of a barking dog. He shared his experience of handling the barking dog.

Pearce said the dog would stop barking whenever an officer showed up.

"What I finally did was call that neighbor and let that barking sound of that dog go in the phone, they knew then that it was him," he said. "I don't know why they could never hear that dog, I could hear him all the time. They heard the phone and then they heard the dog. I did that a couple times and it solved the problem so maybe that's a solution."

"That's not a bad idea," Covey said.

He advised Block to contact a code enforcement officer to report excess dogs and lack of maintainence.

She said she has contacted an officer but her neighbors found out she made the complaint.

Covey offered to personally contact an officer on her behalf.

He requested Block provide information about the dog owners who violate city codes.

She agreed and added she wanted to complain about Larioz and his comfort dog.

Councilmember Bill Ecret asked if she understood the additional animal was allowed under limited circumstances and asked if it changed her opinion about the ordinance.

"No, someone like that isn't able to go out there and clean up and such after his dogs, and I know it doesn't get done. So I feel, why should he have special privileges? He's got a wife and a son that lives there with him and he's got four dogs," Block said