The Town of Highbridge's revised ordinance would prohibit animal “vocalizing,” defined as “howling, yelping, barking, squawking, etc.” for five minutes with four or more vocalizations per minute, or for 20 minutes with two or more vocalizations per minute.
A small town in New Jersey is on the verge of legislating how long dogs are allowed to bark before their owners can be fined or jailed. The strict barking limits would also apply to barking dogs at pet stores, kennels and animal shelters, making for one heck of a difficult law to prosecute based solely on ‘hearsay.’
The Town of Highbridge’s current dog barking ordinance is “very vague,” says Mayor Mark Desire, so he and fellow town council members responded with a proposed ordinance that would limit dogs’ barking to 5 minutes or 20 minutes, based on the frequency of barks per minute.
Operators of pet stores, kennels and animal shelters will be held to the same rules if the proposed ordinance is adopted on Oct. 14. Failure to control mass barking among dogs confined to tight quarters will result in the same penalties applied to pet owners in the form of fines up to $5,000 or up to 90 days in jail.
It’s likely that nobody reading this enjoys excessive dog barking and has experienced an incidence of it that just make your blood pressure skyrocket. Do you think calling the police or animal control should be a last resort after all efforts to get your neighbor to control their dog’s excessive barking have been exhausted, or do you agree with the town council’s plan to attack the disturbances head-on with fines and possible imprisonment is the appropriate solution?
This is ridiculous. First off, people can face fines or jail time based on the say-so of a neighbor. Second, who in the name of all things holy is going to stand there and time the dogs’ barks? Are they going to create a government official charged with this task? Taxpayers money is being wasted enough on local, state, and federal levels. This takes the taco.