An Arizona man shoots and kills a neighbor over a barking Rottweiler. A Maryland homeowner watches a dog defecate on his lawn and reaches for his pellet gun. And in Marin County, California, a person with a pit bull who lunges at joggers opts for relinquishing the animal to the pound.
These are not rare instances of violence and pet abandonment, but along with an increase in the number of households with pets, they are part of the reason for the current resurgence of interest in community mediation. The centers, which are cropping up all around the country, provide ways for residents to iron out their differences by voluntarily meeting with a neutral third party and brainstorming about solutions to common animal-related problems.
News articles and websites, such as psychologist Craig Mixon’s www.barkingdogs.net, document many instances of canine-related destruction and litigation. Although physical acts of revenge and retribution are exceptions rather than the rule, owner frustration and desperation run rampant. Much anecdotal information, as well as hard data, shows that people give away their pets to the local pound because they can’t cope with various problems, such as aggression, escaping and biting.
A study on the behavioral reasons for relinquishment of dogs at 12 animal shelters around the country (Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2000) listed “vocalizing too much” as one of the 10 top reasons people give for dumping their dogs at shelters. City statistics nationwide bear this out. In 2007-08, the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona, received 2,745 negative inquiries about barking dogs, and in 2005, animal control officers in Boulder, Colorado, answered about 150 noise complaints and issued 615 summonses for dogs running at large.
A better way
In an attempt to resolve pet-related disputes more positively and proactively, and to avoid expensive, time-consuming legal measures in which the police, lawyers and courts play prominent roles and underlying problems remain unresolved, many municipalities offer and recommend alternative dispute resolution (ADR), also known as mediation. The advantage to both parties is an improved quality of life as the result of an agreement — a written contract obliging pet owners and others to make such changes as obedience lessons, bark collars and increased exercise. Experience shows that mediation gets better results than adversarial methods because neighbors tend to abide by promises they have scripted themselves. Another benefit is that mediation eases court-case backlogs and allows police officers to respond to more urgent and important calls.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time,” says Wendy Hollingshead, executive director of Solve-It, a mediation center serving Maricopa County, Arizona, “the disputes are resolved in the first session.”
According to the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) website, there are approximately 500 community mediation programs in the U.S.; the majority are supported by grants, state budget appropriations and/or nominal fee-for-service contracts. Some animal control agencies, such as the one in Tucson, Arizona, refer people to mediation centers free of charge. “Pets cause as many problems as kids,” says Irvin Foster, executive director of NAFCM. Foster says family members will often take zero responsibility for a pet. As a result, he says, “owners can receive threats like ‘If that dog ever comes into my yard, I’ll shoot him.’”
Barking brouhahas
The majority of pet peeves center on barking dogs, says mediator Shannon Watson of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Watson’s most memorable mediation case took her 40 hours and a year’s worth of follow-up phone calls to complete successfully. The two neighbors not only argued about a barking dog but also battled about other unrelated issues, such as a common wall in disrepair and a tree with enormously leafy overgrowth. “The relationship between the two homeowners was very poor,” Watson recalls, “and the longer the argument went on, the more cemented their positions became.” In the end, the dog’s person agreed to less “outdoors” time for his pooch, and the two neighbors shook hands.
The earlier two people enter into mediation, the better, says Nancy Pionk, program manager for Community Mediation Services in Vancouver, Washington. Pionk’s case load last year consisted of 159 barking dog matters out of a total of 558 complaints. She advises people with pets to get feedback from neighbors. “Then you can change the conflict/response cycle,” she says, which often eliminates possible injuries to dogs and legal entanglements such as hearings and fines.
Sometimes, simple communication can defuse animosity, says Charles Regal, a social worker and pet custody mediator in San Francisco. “People can be oblivious to each other’s feelings,” he says. “Legal actions polarize, but mediation brings in new information that allows people to solve their problem more easily.” As an illustration, Regal tells how a retired man became so fed up with his neighbor’s barking dog that he flat-out lied to ASPCA staff, saying that the animal was chained up for four hours at a time. During mediation, the dog’s person confided that she was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and was not able to exercise her dog as she had in the past. “So the complainant wound up volunteering to walk the dog every day,” Regal says.
Cooperative strategies are fairly common, says Victor Quiros, program manager for education and mediation at Our Family Services in Tucson, Arizona. He says, “The vast amount of people with complaints about barking actually like animals.” Case in point: Quiros tells how two elderly women with companion animals complained about each other’s barking dog. When they finally met, the pair recognized the real problem as one of loneliness and boredom — as much for them as it was for the dogs. Their written mediation agreement stipulated spending more time together, and the dogs played while their people chatted.
Education can help resolve pet behavior problems. Diane Greer, a former pet mediator for Marin County, California, tells of a musician unable to concentrate because of a chronic barker in the apartment above. “No one wants a misbehaving dog,” says Greer. “But owners sometimes think it’s not in their control.” They usually change their minds upon learning about possible strategies to change the offending behavior, which include dog walkers, calming citronella candles, regular and electric fences, crates or kennels, enrichment toys and training.
Frequently, mediation leads to a get-acquainted visit, says mediation supervisor Anna Lopez. That’s how one neighborhood in Glendale, Arizona, eliminated the problem of a barking dog who ruined outdoor parties. “When dogs get to know a person’s voice, they feel less threatened,” says Lopez.
Poop problems
Animal feces in the wrong place at the wrong time also can instigate complaints. Hollingshead knows of cases involving carrier pigeons whose droppings litter areas along specific flight routes. She once mediated a quarrel between poop-perturbed homeowners and feral cat sympathizers. “The cats also wandered on common walls between neighbors and incited the dogs, who got the blame [for barking],” says Hollingshead. Problem-solving proved successful, with the two groups agreeing to sterilize as many cats as possible; discontinue phoning in complaints to animal control; and provide restorative measures to offset cat damages. The groups scheduled regular “beautification days” in which neighbors cleaned up animal waste, painted curbs and trimmed lawns.
Rancor over uncollected dog feces spreads quickly, since it is an eyesore as well as a health hazard, whether the poop is in someone’s backyard or on common ground such as a park. Mediation can end disputes amicably instead of pitting neighbor against neighbor, but in one celebrated case, the president of an Illinois homeowners’ association and the owners of a Siberian husky failed to take advantage of that option. Instead, the president embarrassed everyone by hanging a bag of dog excrement on the dog owners’ gate. They also were fined $500 by the homeowners’ association, at which point they sent the dog “elsewhere” and put their condo up for sale.
Other gripes
Sometimes, lack of communication between neighbors provokes concerns, says Hollingshead. Such was the case with a woman who feared her neighbor was breeding attack dogs. When she found out the breed was actually dachshunds, she was relieved and eventually adopted one.
Non-communication often persists because it is X-rated. Regal tells of an apartment dweller who heard the greeting “Hi, baby” every time she entered her bathroom. The woman became stressed and constipated, believing the comment was meant to be provocative. She even threatened to use her shotgun if her neighbor didn’t quit. During mediation, the complainant learned that a parrot was the source of the offending remarks. She dropped the matter quickly, says Regal, but it shows that “every dispute, however petty, can escalate to violence if one person doesn’t care and the other one reaches a breaking point.”
Some conflicts among neighbors arise because of differing definitions of “acceptable” pets. For instance, the smells and early-morning noises of chickens, goats, peacocks and roosters can incite as much, if not more, anger as the activities of more common pets like cats and dogs. According to Greer, one “runaway” bunny ate $10,000 worth of shrubbery.
The ultimate aim of mediation is to encourage responsible pet ownership so that animal companions can interact peaceably with the greater community. In Calgary, Alberta, that is just what happens. Under the leadership of Bill Bruce, who directs animal services there, police officers double as mediators, and the result is a reduction in the number of dogs relinquished to shelters by their people. Mediation may not end every dispute, but it is another practical tool in the overall effort to provide forever homes for pets.
To find help
• The Petfinder website has an in-depth article on selecting a mediator for pet-related disputes and additional resources
here.
Janice Arenofsky is a freelance writer living in Scottsdale, AZ. This article originally appeared in the September/October 2009 issue of Best Friends magazine.