Dogs/neighbors, A crappy situation.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

My friend lives a few streets over and she's been having a lot of problems with her neighbors and their dogs. First the neighbors were walking their dogs through her drive way. She spoke to them more then once telling them to stop and after speaking to them even caught them running off from the driveway once they saw her coming. She doesn't have a problem with them or dogs and didn't want to cause any. But also didn't want the smell and stains of urine and her land lord might assume one of them has a dog when none of them do as it is private property.
Now someone is throwing bags of dog crap into her drive way. Though she has an idea of a few it could be, with so many dogs now in the area she isn't 100% sure. There are also a few apartment buildings around and she isn't exactly sure of the exact apartment IF it is one of them. There are a few other suspects in the neighborhood as well. What if anything could she do about this? She was going to call Animal control but doesn't want to call on the wrong person. Should she report it anyways?
Thanks for any advice I can pass onto her.

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

(I live in Medford) I had a problem with a neighbor a while back, who told me that she was going to call the cops/animal control if my dog WALKED ON HER SIDEWALK or even on the STREET IN FRONT OF HER HOUSE. She screamed at me that my dog's poo could be eaten by her young child (er, 6-8 years old?) and she was going to get the police to enforce the law. So I called Animal Control to find out the rules/laws in that regard.

There is essentially nothing that they can do about dogs walking in the driveway, unless people are using the person's yard as a pass-through. Driveways (and sidewalks) are considered areas that the public is allowed on. Dogs can legally walk, and poo and pee, on lawns up to 8 feet (the longest legal leash) away from the sidewalk/driveway. Basically, the person stands on the driveway/sidewalk and holds the 8 foot leash, and the dog can wander where he/she can. If the dog poos, the owner is obligated to clean it up to the best of their ability. Dog pee cannot be cleaned up, therefore the solution is "too bad for the owners of the property that gets peed upon".

Thus it becomes a social issue. The more a person bitches about dogs on "their" property, the more a dog owner is likely to allow their dog to defecate there. In essence, you're screwing yourself by screaming to the dog owners. If you don't want the dogs on your lawn, put up a fence around your property (including the driveway): Animal Control told me if there's a fence there the property owner has more rights because it would show the dog walker is going out of their way to put the dog into that yard. However, a person with a dog can walk up to your front door with the dog, because if you have a front walk that allows strangers to knock on your door, you can't say that dogs can't go there either.

About the dog crap: that's littering. However, have you ever seen the police fingerprint a cigarette butt or a candy wrapper to find out who littered? no. They are similarily not going to fingerprint a filled poo bag. Be realistic here. It's a social/neighbor issue, the police aren't your mommies who tell people to play nice together. Noone's life is at stake because of some litter on the driveway. Noone has had something stolen from them. If it's a matter of trespassing, a law has been broken, but you need real evidence of the actual trespass and all the cops are likely to do is to make suggestions as to what the homeowner/tenant can do to curtail the tresspass before they give a verbal warning to the offender. They have more serious things to do (like eat donuts at Dunkin' Donuts).

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

All of that said, it sounds as though Medford and Somerville differ here: the longest legal dog leash length in S'ville is six feet.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can't remember if medford is 6 or 8 feet. I just know that all my leashes are "legal length". Now, you may be able to have the cops give the person a warning if they are using one of those 12-foot or longer windup style leashes, which would be illegal in your town.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

i disagree about calling the poo bag "litter". if an animal owner is obligated to clean it up when their dog poos on someone's property, then they shouldn't be placing it there deliberately.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Placing an object that is classified as trash is littering. About the only objects that are "worse" than actual littering is if the item is some sort of item that is detrimental to public health: drugs, hypodermic needles, radioactive materials, something with intrinisic anti-health properties (um, samples of pus from someone with ebola, etc). Once poo is put into a bag, it becomes litter.

Call Somerville's 311 line to get more details if you wish, I can't see it classified as anything except litter at that point. Heck, it would even make sense to me to have dog poo that isn't picked up classified under the litter laws too.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Useful stuff, though some of these rules may vary by city. It'd be great if someone could post the relevant laws for Somerville.

Ordinances

[grateful1311.livejournal.com]

http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=11580&sid=21

Please note that the fines for dog offenses have gone up from $25 to $50.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

You obviously didn't read what I wrote. Reread it. She rents.
Her driveway is pretty much a yard too. They use it to pass through. The driveway is a lot longer then 8 feet. Again, it's not the walking as that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. At least from what we know. It's the poop dropping.

Nobody said she screamed at them. She is not that type of person. If someone yells you nicely to stop what you're doing on private property but you continue to do it out of spite that is pure immaturity.

I wasn't the one who brought up finger printing, but a bag of smelly crap is A LOT different then a candy wrapper.

Again, please read what I'm typing before going off.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

Ust wanted to clarify on something. What I mean by the waking not seeming like an issue any loner is it seems they don't walk the dog THROUGH the driveway anymore. However, they go in pretty deep to dump crap.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

"yells at" and "screams" sort of mean the same thing to me, sorry if there is a difference in your book. Continuing to do something "out of spite" is not immaturity, if what they are doing is totally within the law and very annoying to curtail (i.e. if you're walking the dog, and the person demands that you to cross the busy street, walk on the other side of the street, then re-cross to get back to that side of the road after going around the house,) that is just plain irrational, and any mature person would ignore it.

With that said, it's also difficult to remedy the situation once it has risen to such proportions. This is a social issue (except for the littering aspect). Since the complaintant is renting, they may have to get their landlord involved if it's a tresspass issue.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

I didn't say "yells at". It says "yells you", it was a typo on the keyboard the T is next to the Y. It's supposed to say "tells you".

It is immaturity, whether it is dropping dog crap or some other thing out of spite. Crossing a busy street and going all over the place isn't what these people would have to go through to get to their place NEXT door.

Since who ever is doing it, [the people who used to walk through or some other person] is walking pretty far in to drop the crap off, I'm thinking it could be a trespass issue. She said she is going to call 311 some time today.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

From what you've said elsewhere, the driveway is not a standard driveway. Walking in or through the driveway may or may not be considered "tresspass": that's for the police and the landlord to decide after looking at the thing. Also, remember that poop bags are emminently "tossible" so it may be a litter thing, or it may be termed "illegal dumping". 311 is a good idea. I hope it can be cleared up. (as for my issue, I just stopped walking my dog. It was a poor decision, since I like walking around. But she was becoming quite irrational, like if she saw me out with the dog she'd drive her car down the street REALLY FAST and I thought she was going to run me over!)

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

So, you're saying that you believed that this person attempted vehicular murder, and you didn't call the police?

Are you insane?

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

A cigarette butt on the sidewalk is rudeness.

Weekly bags of dog crap on your driveway is harassment.

If you can't discern the difference between the two, you shouldn't go out in public unsupervised.

If the police can't be bothered to investigate people throwing bags of dog crap on other people's property on a regular basis, we should be asking our aldermen what we're paying the police for.

[etana.livejournal.com]

I hardly think we're paying local law enforcement to investigate dog crap.

YGTBK

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

"The more a person bitches about dogs on "their" property, the more a dog owner is likely to allow their dog to defecate there."

This is passive-aggressive BS. Somebody has a problem with your dog, stay the f*ck away from them. How hard is that?