SUMNER – Katrina MacDonald is at her wits’ end with her neighbor’s dogs.
“It has become a very serious problem in our lives,” she told selectmen at their Tuesday meeting. “We can’t live like this anymore.”
In a letter to selectmen, MacDonald wrote that her neighbor Maurice Hart’s hunting hounds bark “at times nonstop,” starting at 8 a.m. and continuing all day. They bark at her children when they play outside, and have waked the family at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
“When he is home is the only peaceful time,” she wrote.
MacDonald said that in the past four years she has contacted state police and Animal Control Officer Dannie Paine many times, as well as asking Hart to quiet the dogs.
Paine expressed frustration with Sumner’s ordinance regarding dog noise. He cited Bryant Pond’s ordinance as an example of a town that allows no noise from dogs.
In contrast, Sumner’s ordinance states that no person owning a dog shall allow continued barking or howling.
“Now when you talk about continued barking,” Paine said, “how long is continued? Ten minutes?”
Paine said he has visited Hart’s property three times and has never heard the dogs barking, but noted that he doesn’t know whether the dogs started barking after he left. Although he said he would not want to live under the circumstances MacDonald described, he said he would “hate to take Mr. Hart to court,” where he would face fines of $25 to $150 for each of his eight dogs.
Hart told selectmen Tuesday night that he has tried to solve the problem with bark collars, which give the dogs an electric shock each time they bark. He described the collars as “a square box with two prongs, and you have to get that collar tight or it doesn’t work. If you’d seen a dog that’s had one on for a couple of days, you’d want to take it off too. That can break through the skin and it gets all infected.”
Hart said he is now planning to move them behind the house to cut down on the noise.
Board Chairman Clifford McNeil told Hart he should move the dogs at least 1,000 feet away from the house. He will visit Hart’s property Friday to check on his progress.
Selectmen gave Hart 30 days to solve the problem, which Hart called “more than fair.” If the noise hasn’t stopped after that time, they will ask Paine to take legal action.
In other action, selectmen discussed the placement of flags on veterans’ graves.
Resident Rena Johnston is no longer able to place flags on the graves of 64 veterans at Pleasant Pond Cemetery. Selectmen hope a resident will volunteer to place the flags before Memorial Day.
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