Posted by Verdi on May 01, 01 at 13:11:21:
In Reply to: Easy to remove posted by ksheehan on April 30, 01 at 17:38:50:
Don't know what resources you have available to you, but around here (Atlanta suburbs) dogs that run freely through the neighborhood, tagged or not, are considered strays.
Call the pound when they're wandering around the neighborhood. Enough calls will get you routine patrols (squeaky wheel theorem).
The dogs that are truly strays will be removed. The owners of the rest will sadly find that the cost of retrieving an impounded animal quickly escalates, especially when fines are added for multiple retrievals. The best part is that you remain anonymous so as to not become a victim of an irate dog owner's revenge (sad to have to worry about things like that in todays 'neighbor'hoods...)
We had an issue with a new family that moved in across the street. The dog was big and always unleashed. It would charge at passers-by, children, other dogs (namely mine, which never leaves our yard), and would come up on our deck to rummage for snacks.
We called animal control, they took our name for the report but assured us that the complaint would be referred as coming from the 'neighborhood'. Within an hour, an animal control truck pulled up to the new family's house, the driver had a 10 minute conversation with the owner, and the dog has been restrained ever since, with no hurt feelings on anybody's part.