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Kauai hunters LIHUE >> The Kauai Humane Society's effort to create the island's first barking-dog ordinance has run into near-rabid opposition -- not from owners of yapping poodles and Chihuahuas, but from the island's pig hunters.
holler over
barking bill
A bill would fine owners for
dogs that bark incessantlyBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comEvery weekend, Kauai's pig hunters load their dozen or so mixed-breed hunting dogs into cages on their pickup trucks and head into the island's interior.
The rest of the week, the dogs live in their back yards, usually in residential working-class subdivisions.
And they bark. Not a single hunter denies that his dogs bark. It's what dogs do, they say.
Firmly convinced that 150 years of weekend pig-hunting tradition are in jeopardy, Kauai hunters packed the audience at a County Council hearing on the bill Thursday night.
A small group of Humane Society staff and supporters, many of them mainland transplants, sat in one corner of the room while the hunters shouted down the bill in passionate and often angry speeches.
Many of the pig hunters sat on folding chairs they set up in the back of the room.
The majority of the testimony from the hunters blamed the legislation on people who have moved to Kauai.
"They want to live like us, but when we ask them to adopt our culture, they don't want to," said Billy DeCosta. "We hunt for the meat. It's our way of life. My great-grandfather came from Portugal in 1859, and he was a hunter."
Tony Silva, another hunter, agreed.
"If they move to our neighborhood, they have to accept us as we are. We like our hunting. We like our hunting dogs," Silva said. "Nobody is coming into our neighborhood telling us to shut our dogs up."
Terry Souza called the Humane Society "all you high-tax people who have nothing better to do."
"I'm the mother of 10 hunting dogs. These are my babies, my husband and I," she said. "They're dogs and dogs bark, just like the child who cries or the sports fan who yells at the television."
The bill would make it illegal to have a dog that "barks, whines, howls or makes any other unreasonable noise" continuously for 10 minutes or intermittently for 30 minutes.
The owner can be cited by a police officer or animal control officer who witnesses the howling or on an affidavit from two unrelated neighbors.
The fines range from $50 for a first offense to $500 for a third offense. The dog owner also could be ordered to pay for the dog attending a training course to stop its barking.
Becky Rhoades, director of the Kauai Humane Society who asked the Council for the bill, argued that animal control officers would work with the dog owners to help stop the barking long before any fines would be imposed.
"On Oahu, education resolved 70 percent of the problem," Rhoades said.
She suggested that mechanical devices such as shock collars can help keep dogs from barking.
The hunters -- who argued there is more noise pollution from feral roosters, peacocks, cats and even children -- wanted to know why their dogs are being targeted when other noise sources are ignored.
"There are neighbors all around my house with babies that cry all night," said Melvin Aki. "Are you guys going to put shocking collars on them?"
A companion bill that would make it a crime to own a vicious dog received little attention. It is a response from Rhoades to an incident last year in which a horse ridden by a Kauai woman was attacked by a hunter's dogs. The woman was thrown and the horse was killed.
Although the dogs' owner was identified by a witness, Kauai police never arrested him.
The vicious-dog bill appears likely to pass.
Both will be back before the Council for a committee vote on Oct. 3.
Meanwhile, at the Honolulu City Council yesterday, the Honolulu Police Department appeared to have convinced the Council that it is not the proper agency to investigate barking-dog complaints.
HPD Maj. Doug Miller said yesterday the Humane Society voluntarily offered to enforce Honolulu's new barking-dog ordinance but recently asked for $80,000 a year to cover the costs. The Council instead gave the job to the Police Department, tying up a large number of officers.
Yesterday, the Council agreed to reverse its decision but did not agree to fund the Humane Society, leaving the matter in limbo at least for the moment, Miller said.
County of Kauai
