Council Votes to Fine for 'Excessive Barking'

Echo Park dog owners now have extra reason to be sure their pooch isn’t bored or left alone too long.

And Echo Park residents who live near a dog that barks too much for too long have a way to fight back.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 to amend a city ordinance to fine owners of dogs that bark “excessively.”

AMENDMENT DEFINES EXCESSIVE BARKING

According to the ordinance, a dog's barking would be considered excessive if it continued for 10 minutes or more, or intermittently for 30 minutes or more within a three-hour period.

Fines would start at $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 for a third after a hearing by the Department of Animal Services.

According to KNBC’s website, dogs can also be removed from a home and placed into a shelter or foster home.

Hearings on complaints will moved to the administrative side of the Deparment of Animal Services, reducing some of the delays many complain about now.

Read about Echo Park Patch contributor Gary Leonard's ordeal under the old law here.

Also under the old ordinance, the city also had no authority against unlicensed dogs.

LAW COULD MAKE OWNERS MORE RESPONSIBLE, SAY SOME

Some cheered the new law as a way to ensure dog owners take responsibility for their pets.

Jen Byrne of Silver Lake Dog Park  and co-organizer of Sunday’s Howl-O-Ween costume contest told Echo Park Patch in an email:

An incessantly barking dog is not a happy dog. So I’m personally happy for any law that makes a dog owner wake. Often a barking dog is a lonely or bored dog. Get another another dog for companionship, hire a dog walker, stay at home fore often. There’s many things one can do to prevent this kind of situation.

Meantime, Jose Sigala of the Echo Park Neighborhood Council worried about the impact of the law on families and administrators:

My concern is the lack of staffing to handle the possible increase in complaints, the impact an increase in fines could have on working families and the increase likelihood that unwarranted accusations may come about due to neighbors not liking each other and using this as a mean spirited attack.
 

L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa must now approve the plan.

Councilman Richard Alarcon submitted to a motion to make sure there is a marketing plan in place so that dog owners know about the amended law.