JP Don McNeely had promised to bring an ordinance to the table to give county residents some relief from neighbors with noisy dogs. He spoke at Monday night’s quorum court meeting about a property in Green Forest that had caused recurring problems with neighbors.
McNeely visited the problem property, and described an “unbelievable” situation with dogs in pens, running free, or chained to trees. Some of the dogs chained up had no food or water. He played a short recording of the noise coming from those dogs. “They’d be better off wild, running with coyotes, than they are now,” McNeely said.
A neighbor said more than 40 dogs live there, leading to constant barking and an overpowering smell. She also complained that she had picked up bags of trash that blew onto her property from the site. McNeely said the county had briefly passed an ordinance that would have provided some authority over the situation, but that 1986 ordinance was quickly repealed.
JP Craig Hicks said he could see the need for an animal control ordinance, but the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office would not have the manpower to enforce it. The proposed ordinance called for a $100 ticket for each offense. Hicks said the ordinance did not address removing a vicious animal, and the county would not have anywhere to house such animals.
Hicks asked for comment from Capt. John Contreras of CCSO, who said he agreed with the intent of the ordinance, but could see a big increase in call volume. He also raised the possibility of a deputy responding to a complaint and having to prove a barking dog violation.
Several JPs recounted situations in which this ordinance would have helped, but objections mounted and the ordinance was rejected handily.