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The Barking Dog News Hall of Shame

Introduction

The B. D. Hall of Shame is a rogue's gallery in text. Its components were drawn from news stories that tell the tale of organizations and individuals who behaved in a way that can only add fuel to the fire of the barking scourge.

San Francisco Chronicle Suppresses Information Vital to Public Health
After years of refusing to acknowledge the dangers of exposing people to the stress of chronic noise, the editorial staff of the San Francisco Chronicle has finally acknowledged the same, when they recently printed an article about the negative impact of traffic noise on the health of the citizens of the Bay Area.

However, much to their shame, they continue their refusal to acknowledge the more insidious threat represented by the noise of barking dogs being force-fed into human living quarters on an around-the-clock basis.

Geelong Mayor Earns Nomination for Head-In-Sand Award
Summary: Perhaps this year's Head-In-Sand Award should go to Shane Dowling, the mayor of Geelong, Australia, who responded to multiple complaints of horrendous barking abuse by insisting that noise pollution in his town is no big deal.

Police Chief Makes a Back Door Move to Legalize Chronic Barking in Prescott Valley, Arizona
Summary: Dan Schatz, the police chief of Prescott Valley, has proposed that a new "process" for filing barking dog complaints be put in place. The chief hopes that the procedural change will free-up police officers and animal control personnel who, heretofore, have spent an inordinate amount of time responding to complaints about barking dogs.

Unfortunately, the procedural change proposed by the chief amounts to the implementation of a multiple-household law. Not only that, it is a three-household law, which is the legal equivalent to the authorities wrapping the bark abuse victim in 300 pounds of chains, and then insisting that he swim across Lake Erie and back before they'll agree to render assistance.

In short, what the chief is proposing is a program that will free-up officers by making it next to impossible for bark-abuse victims to bring an end to their torment by turning to the legal system. It is, essentially, the legalization of chronic barking.

Reporter Fails to Differentiate Between a Crime and a Feud
Summary: Sallie James of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel wrote a newspaper article about the conclusion of a court case involving a Coral Springs couple who had struggled their way through the legal system, trying to get their neighbor to take responsibility for his large, barking dog. In the headline, the reporter referred to the couple's struggle with the owner of the barking dog as a "feud."

Please, Ms. James! Before we can even hope to make a dent in the barking epidemic, the reporters of the world are going to first have to learn to differentiate between a feud, which is a mutual squabble for which all parties are more or less equally to blame, and a crime, in which one person victimizes another through malicious or irresponsible behavior .

New Jersey Newspaper Displays Sensitivity of Attila the Hun
Summary: The Township Committee in Colts Neck, New Jersey, took time from two of their meetings to try to do something to improve their completely unworkable "anti-barking" law.

In the end they were still left with a totally worthless ordinance, but even that much effort was too much for the Asbury Park Press, that printed an editorial railing against the effort. They called it "absurd," "silly," and "inane" for the committee to waste time trying to help victimized citizens whose lives are crumbling out from under them because they can no longer work, rest, relax, or sleep in their own homes due to the irresponsible behavior of their neighbors.

Is the editorial writer for the APP just the most insensitive lout who ever lived, or is there something seriously wrong with that guy?

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