News story from the southeastern United States:
Athens man shoots neighbor’s dog because of its barking, tries beating it to death with bat
What's interesting about this story is not that it's unique. It isn't. This sort of thing has happened before, and, sorry to say, it will happen again.
What's interesting is how it is being viewed in the online comments. Inconsiderate dog owners are mentioned more than once.
Bingo. That's the problem.
As long as inconsiderate owners allow their dogs to bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, and bark, and do nothing about getting the noise to stop, people are going to react in ways that aren't pretty.
Want to avoid this reaction? If you're a dog owner, follow the advice given by this commenter: "Bring your dogs inside if they are barking. I have three dogs and would never expect my neighbors to deal with them barking."
A big part of the problem is that in many areas animal uncontrol has rigged the system in order to avoid having to deal with belligerent, asshole dog owners. In my are I have to BUY video equipment, set it up, and provide a half hour of video evidence of dog barking complete with date and time stamp. What other CRIME requires video evidence? Where I last lived they only required FIVE minutes of video evidence, BUT also required two signed affidavits from OTHER neighbors! No one can convince me this isn't on purpose so they don't have to deal with the problem. Even IF you meet all the (ridiculous) requirements, there is typically little actual punishment even after repeated offenses. Maybe a sternly worded post-it note from animal control, or a small token fine; when the REAL solution is education (on the need to exercise and provide stimulation for your dog daily), STEEP fines, court ordered bark control collar, and court ordered debarking with the bill sent to the dog owner.
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