Barking up the wrong street

Last week’s main story, “Homeowners’ Dogs Poisoned” (‘Courier, 24 January) refers.
Without knowing the full facts relating to the alleged poisoning of those dogs, one has to have a certain amount of empathy for the alleged perpetrator in this instance.
The issue of incessant barking of dogs in Ballito has reached intolerable levels, particularly in the Ballito Drive-Elizabeth Road vicinity. For at least six months now, two ‘resident’ dogs have been barking incessantly. And ‘incessant’ is not an overstatement. These animals, whether it is in the early hours of the morning; during the working day; weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, just never stop. How the near neighbours in the area can bear to put up with this continuous cacophony of noise, goodness only knows. At the time of submitting this letter, the dogs are ‘going mad’, barking at ‘nothing’, so to speak.
What are our rights as municipal ratepayers? Surely there are laws and regulations which can be enforced. It would appear that the SPCA are ‘spineless’ if they (the SPCA) cannot investigate more fully. Surely there is a limit as to the number of dogs allowed to be kept on residential property? In last week’s article it mentions that there are still seven dogs living on the property, including two Rottweilers, a German Shepherd and the puppies. To each his own, I guess, but I appeal to all dog-owners – well, the inconsiderate ones, at least – to control their pets and ‘cool it’ when it comes to barking dogs.
We don’t have this problem with our cat, nor the goldfish!
ROBERT H. FIDLER
Ballito