Public Safety Meeting at Leilani Community Center

[Obie]

The animal control officers in the county where I spend the summers carry weapons and are able to take care of pack situations.

After many years of vigilant enforcement of the animal control laws,they are almost out of business.

They are so feared that all it takes is for you to tell your neighbor with the barking dog that you are going to call them and the dog gets quiet !!

Seriously, you do not see dogs running loose, no dog crap ,and barking dogs are not tolerated.

[missydog1]

I would be down with having animal control officers. Then it would never be beneath them to respond to a dog call, because that would be their main purpose.

The Humane Society as it is currently operating is far from an Animal Control organization, so something new would need to be created, and the legislature would need to change the statutes I imagine.

RIP Marc Hansen, another fine musician gone (Hansen & Raitt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_2nxZ3Wrqw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTReV9kDS3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRTULLjILAg&feature=related
http://web.me.com/cayurt/Yurt_People/history.html

[oink]

What seems to work fairly well here is:
Animal Control is supervised by the Sheriff's Office (The primary L.E. agency here) and is part of it's budget, although the Animal Control officers are not L.E. certified. In many cases Animal Control seems to serve as an entry level position for the Sheriff's Office. Because of this relationship they work well with the actual cops. The Animal Control officers write infractions but if a complaint needs to be written for the S.A. (prosecutor), a certified L.E.O. writes it, usually the one supervising them but not necessarily.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[james weatherford]

While suggestions for what "should" be and what is done elsewhere are always interesting and sometimes helpful, the reality is that in the here and now there are existing laws that do deal with the situation and there are existing law enforcement officers responsible for enforcing those laws, and those existing laws are not being enforced.
Furthermore, when Joel Foster tried to raise awareness at the Mayor's Office and the local Council Office he was initially rebuffed -- until he and people he asked to help him made lots of noise.

[Seeb]

quote:

---

Originally posted by oink

What seems to work fairly well here is:
Animal Control is supervised by the Sheriff's Office (The primary L.E. agency here) and is part of it's budget, although the Animal Control officers are not L.E. certified. In many cases Animal Control seems to serve as an entry level position for the Sheriff's Office. Because of this relationship they work well with the actual cops. The Animal Control officers write infractions but if a complaint needs to be written for the S.A. (prosecutor), a certified L.E.O. writes it, usually the one supervising them but not necessarily.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

---

That is not the case if you write the enabling legislation - i think there is some thing in the zoning/ building administration section that designated people can write appearance tickets - so i think a zoning inspector could write tickets to stuff in the county code dogs, junk cars and stuff like that

as a fire inspector back east i could and did write tickets on city code stuff. I went to court on traffic court days with the regular LEOs .

[Jay Bondesen]

I thought that I should clarify the thread intro from James just a bit here. The meeting is actually the regularly scheduled Neighborhood Watch meeting for the Leilani Estates subdivision. Joel asked if he could address the issue there and the Watch chairman agreed. These meetings are open to the larger district and folks are welcome to come to support Neighborhood Watch as well as discuss community issues.
Our Neighborhood Watch members try to help enforce the posted leash law in Leilani by taking photos and writing reports up on loose dogs, and when we can determine where they come from we notify the owner via mail. At times, with repeated sightings, we also try to coordinate a response from the Humane Society. As for the more serious issue of dog attacks or dog tresspassing, the police are really the ones to notify. The Neighborhood Watch group only has the ability to accept complaints and when able to we can correspond with the owners of the offending dogs. This information is then easily accessable to the police or the district attorney for follow up.
Dogs harassing walkers is one of the most common issues brought up as a problem in our neighborhood and we really wish that we had a better solution. What we have found as far as a police response goes, which includes the local Humane Society, is that if they hear about a problem often enough and loud enough they will go after it. The thing about dogs is that you can spend weeks or months resolving one and then you have another one move in. If anyone knows of an easier yet still legal way to handle this then please come to the meeting and share.
Jay

Jay

[james weatherford]

Thanks for that, Jay.
And, thank you so much for opening your Neighborhood Watch meeting to the entire district.
On Monday morning I sent an email to about 30 people regarding the 2/28 meeting. Some of them forwarded that email on to their respective networks. Since then, I have received emails regarding dog attacks in Leilani, HPP, and Ainaloa.

[mailesomaha]

Dog Liability and Homeowners Insurance
Insurance companies have paid particular interest to dogs in recent years and have worked at field underwriting all Homeowners and Renter’s policies for dog exposures. Their main focus is to eliminate exposure to severe losses. In 2002, dog-bite claims cost insurers almost $350 million, and accounted for a full fourth (1/4) of all liability claims.

You're going to sue the owners AND the police, right!? Don't forget to add mental anguish. Sounds like Leilani sub. might consider a class action even.

[missydog1]

It is important to focus on what the laws are here, what can be done here, and what the attitude is here. OTOH, this is a widespread issue and there may be stuff to be learned from other battles.

I have been aware of negligent dog owner issues for a long time because my mother was a lone crusader in her community 25 years ago. She rallied like minds, they started working with the police to try to raise their awareness. Police did not want to "waste" their time, and the burden was on citizens to record unlawful behavior and get it before a judge. She organized volunteers to help people get through the difficult complaint progress and to go to court with people who felt it was all too difficult.

I think she did make a difference, but it didn't come easily or fast. The culture there was very similar to Hawai'i as to complete obliviousness to dogs on the part of their owners and hostility towards anyone who said boo.

It's an important battle and I hope you all help each other, because I know from experience watching my mom that it is a tough fight to do on your own. (I say "you" because so far I have been lucky, but we do have some roaming neighbor dogs that come on my property, and I don't like it, but don't even know who the owners are.)

RIP Marc Hansen, another fine musician gone (Hansen & Raitt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_2nxZ3Wrqw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTReV9kDS3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRTULLjILAg&feature=related
http://web.me.com/cayurt/Yurt_People/history.html

[ericlp]

this is pathetic. This person (with the dogs) must be related to a cop and getting special treatment.

I hate stories like this. Seems to happen a lot more lately.

I have never been threatened by any dogs in puna. But... I sold my six acres in orchidland, the lady I sold it too a Chinese Art teacher was walking her dog on 40'th ... and got attacked buy 6 pitbulls and ended up in hilo hospital for a few days. Almost died!

That was 5 or so years ago. I felt so bad that I sent her a big can of the hottest bear spray I could find she thanked me for it... I also have one for myself that will carry in puna for self defense reasons. I know it's illegal in hawaii but screw that. I'm not gonna be a target because some asshat left his/her gate open and 5 pit bulls are running towards me.

I suggest you all do what you gotta do, baseball bats, clubs, knives, whatever... I won't be another static... Be a part of the solution not part of the problem.