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Severely Ill Woman Tortured by Roar of Six Nearby Dogs Screaming Endlessly. Authorities May or May Not Do Something - Eventually - Just as Soon as they Do or Don't Get Around to It

BARKING MAD

Northern Territory News - Written by Stephen Johnson - December 2, 2004

A woman who keeps six dogs in her back yard can't understand why her neighbours are upset.

Pauline Noble, 42, has four Jack Russells, a kelpie and a border collie kept in cages at her home in the Palmerston suburb of Gray.

She successfully applied in August for a special circumstances council licence to keep more than two dogs.

But neighbour Wynn Awty, 64, said constant yapping in the middle of the night made it difficult for her to cope with her cancer treatment, now in its sixth month.

"We can't shut the windows -- it's too hot," she said.

She said she struggled to get two hours' sleep a night because of the dogs' barking.

Her husband Darryl, 55, said he would take court action if his neighbour did not move the dogs.

"We've got six dogs versus a lady on chemotherapy," he said. "They never stop bloody barking and she does nothing to fix it.

"It's typical -- people who own dogs don't care who their pets annoy."

Mrs Noble, an administration officer, said she adopted two of the pooches from her parents, who are too ill to look after them, and two from her brother, who is travelling.

Two dogs were moved to the NT last year after her divorce.

"I'm not putting them down for anybody -- they're my babies," Mrs Noble said.

"My dogs hardly bark -- none of the other neighbours are complaining.

"I'm that paranoid, if I hear a nip I'm out the door like a rocket."

The single mother said her other neighbours gave her consent to look after six dogs when she applied for a licence.

Palmerston City Council chief executive Rodney Donne said Mrs Noble's licence was being reviewed following a complaint from a neighbour.

Her licence requires her to give away four dogs by June 30 next year, and her neighbours have until December 10 to complain to council if they want the dogs removed.

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