Help needed Please!!!

[RockysMom]

I would really get a copy of the noise ordinance, I bet your not breaking any laws!! The way you describe where you love sounds a lot like where my parents live, now they don't have any birds, but I don't think someone that far away could hear them?? I know this is not the right thing to do, but I am that type of person I would confront the neighbors!! I wouldn't be mean or anything, but I would give them a piece of my mind!! Maybe they are hearing peacocks and think it is coming from your house! An in that type of area there has to be something on the books about keeping your dogs from running free, so I would look into that!! Hope all goes well!!

[Congobongo]

I agree, get a copy of what the ordinance is. I also recommend not leaving the birds outside at night. I have 2 Umbrellas and they tend to cockaTOOdledo in the morning and then again in the evening. My neighbors do hear them but it is not loud enough or during evening hours when some are going to bed or trying to sleep. I also take my birds outside and all my neighbor kids come over to see them. Sometimes I ask them which one they want to see ( I have a Blue and Gold and a Green Winged too). The girls all love 'the white one'. I bring unsalted peanuts out for the kids to give the birds. So, my neighbors are pretty tolerant of my zoo.

However, I did have a j@ck@ss that lived a street behind me and down several houses that complained about my doberman barking. Mind you, my dog goes out (fenced yard) in the morning to do his thing and when I come home from work. Occasionally if he goes to the door and wants out I let him out again. If he sees a squirrel or such yes, he barks like a fool. However, if I hear him barking at something I immediately call him back ing the house. He is never out at night. He is never out for more than 10 min. at a time. Bottom line, this guy doesn't like Doberman's.

Our dog warden (who is a police officer) did have to come out and respond to the complaint but he too knowing the distance and proximity of this J@ck@ss from me thought it was frivolous. Basically I believe he told the j@ck@ass I was doing nothing wrong and not breaking any rules and to get over it. I never heard anything again and I believe they have moved.

You do need to be very careful though about what the local ordinance is because if he is the fire chief he has buddies in the police dept. and more.

However, there is no excuse for allowing a Rottweiler or any dog for that matter run loose. That I would not tolerate and complain about.

And if all else fails, good fences make good neighbors.

[magdalena]

That's a horrible situation. Hope it's not just 60 decibels because toos are about 6 times louder than that!

[KimM]

Yep! This stinks. My smart ass answer would be to address the obvious.. diplomatically of course. If your parents need to respond, tell them to respond to the obvious .. LOL. "There must be an error, because you have no peacocks on the premises and if there were any peacocks on the premises, they must be wild." Don't even address that you have Cockatoos. It's none of their business and if they can't even identify what is making noise... well tough
.
As far as the others, I agree, put up cameras so they can see that your "complaining" neighbors are letting their animals run without supervision to your property. I would also check into noise ordinances and consult an attorney

As far as the Cockatoos.. Moluccans are the loudest and can be heard pretty far away. However, screaming at 10 pm at night for a Cockatoo is pretty unlikely unless there was a "predator" nearby (like their dogs?) Sorry, Evil Kim is coming out

[Chief's Mom]

A happy M2 is probably around 3000 dB on a good day! But with the parents living on that much property with a tree line acting as a sound barrier, I seriously doubt they have any ground to stand on with the noise issue. But since these neighbors seem like the type that like to 'work the system' and use their connections, it may be a difficult situation either way. Your parents don't know any of the councilmen after having live there for so long?

[Shana413]

Why do neighbors have to be that way? I would walk right over there and ask what their problem is, you dont have to tell them you have cockatoo's like someone else said, just tell them you dont own any peacocks and that you dont appreciate their dogs wandering in your backyard. Rotties are very big dogs, they really have some nerve letting the dog wander unattended... If these people cannot drop their problem with your parents- then i would call animal control everytime you see their dog loose. Its sad that it would have to come to that. These people need to start worrying about their unsupervised dog- not your loud "peacocks" lol :) i hope the situation works out alright for you. If you keep the too's time outside limited to a few hours each day and moniter their noise- i cant see how anyone could complain. Good luck.
-Shana

[Congobongo]

I agree. Do your partents have any city 'connections'? Again, because he is the local fire chief he does. And I bet that is why he got such a quick response to his complaint and why he has the audacity to let his dogs run free. He may think he is above the ordinances and the law because he has 'buddies' and some local influence.

If you or your parents have a legal friend you may want to have a talk with them. I doubt anyone can come and confiscate one's pets the way they are threatening (I think it is blowing smoke).

Actually, if your folks complain and do take video and pics of his dogs, especially the Rott roaming free and in their yard, the local news media may find that a tasty story as in, how does the local fire chief get away with this?

[magdalena]

Originally Posted by Congobongo

Actually, if your folks complain and do take video and pics of his dogs, especially the Rott roaming free and in their yard, the local news media may find that a tasty story as in, how does the local fire chief get away with this?

Oh evil evil (good) idea!

[Congobongo]

LOL, not evil just clever! I totally think he is getting deference because he is the fire chief and that is not fair! So, if her folks have to pull out stops to defend themselves...so be it.

And, my dad is a retired fire Leutenant however he is the nicest guy on earth and loves animals. He would never do this to a neighbor. At the very least, if it was truly keeping them up at night etc. he would kindly ask them to take them in at night. But I doubt he would do that. He would probably buy earplugs first!

[becca623]

Thank you to everyone that has responded. You have some good ideas. My mom is going to only allow the birds outside for a few hours when she's home. This is the third summer she has had them. They spent most of the last 2 summers outside without a problem. These people live right next to railroad tracks. The trains are really loud by their house. I know because I spent a lot of time there as a kid. I wonder if they will complain about that next? My mom said that if one of them had just told her that the noise was bothering them then she wouldn't have left the bird out the next night. In order to have that guy hear her they had to have come to the property line. There is no way they would have heard her from inside their house. It's always been well sound proofed.
When I grew up, it was so much different there. As neighbors we looked out for each other. If someone needed a cup of sugar, a babysitter, drive way plowed, whatever we helped each other. The family across the road have chickens and roosters. The roosters sound off early each morning. I wonder if they have called about them too. We always accepted things like barking dogs, roaming animals, roosters, cows occasionally loose in our yard, etc as part of living in the country. I guess things have changed.
Yeah, this guy knows everyone. He used to work for the police department also. He has influence. I don't think he's the one complaining. It's probably the wife. He's come to my parents house to ask if they had seen his dogs before when they ran off. Back when she was complaining about the barking he told me no one was calling us from his house. I had called back a couple times because their number was on our caller id several times. I didn't know who was calling or why. She didn't like that any of the dogs in the area barked even during the day. Basically, she's a pain in the behind who spends her time finding ways to bully people from what I gather.
My parents are nice people. My mom won't take them to court or call the dog warden on them. She refuses to do anything "evil". I on the other hand wouldn't have a problem doing such. I found out yesterday that she is going to have to start using a ladder to trim THEIR shrubs because they have grown so tall. They have never once trimmed them and just planted approximately 50 more. The zoning guy is going to receive a call tomorrow about it because she's almost 60. She doesn't need to lug around a ladder to trim their trees.
Anyway, thank you for letting me rant.