My wife and I are living with my parents right now while we find jobs. The neighbors across the street have a dog that they just let roam and is constantly hanging out in and around the road and coming way into our yard, pissing off our dogs.

I don’t know what the fuck to do. My parents talked to them a few months ago but nothing changed.

My dad wants to call animal control, my wife agrees. My mom doesn’t want to do that, because animal control here is just two fucking cops at the sheriffs office, and obviously she doesn’t like calling the fucking cops, both because she doesn’t want to call the cops on someone but also because she doesn’t want the cops coming on our property either and finding who knows what.

My wife is (rightly) pissed, and terrified of a driver hitting it, whether that driver is her or someone else.

Chat what the fuck can we do about this

  • Ithorian [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Try talking to them again. I was on the other side of this and hadn’t realized my dog was still going over there all the time. After they asked the first time I had thought I fixed the problem but turned out I hadn’t even slowed my dogs down. I felt so shitty when I find out.

  • JustSo [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Aren’t there state level agencies that can be called to investigate when people are keeping animals in unsafe or abusive environments? Letting livestock wander into traffic is really shit behavior. Obviously ditto for the dog, but I get the impression free-roaming dogs are considered “normal” in a lot of parts of the world I used to consider advanced and developed.

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Not that I’m aware of, animal control seems to be done at the county level around here. I didn’t think it was normal around here but there’s also a dog a few miles away that literally chases cars so maybe it’s more common than I think

  • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    5 hours ago

    Unrelated but kind of a moment for me to complain about my downstairs neighbor but they keep letting their fucking dog out without a leash or they chain it to the light pole in the public yard like it’s theirs and it’s very fucking annoying. Especially since that fucking dog probably got 2 of the three stray cats i’ve been feeding

  • JustSo [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Probably not a practical suggestion, but you could start feeding the dog, teaching it to play fetch and treating it with love and kindness. Take it for walks, maybe to the dog park to socialise. Once the dog is voluntarily spending more time with your family than with them they will be motivated by jealousy to secure their dog.

    It might be lonely if it keeps specifically coming over to your house where it sounds like there are probably people around most of the day- are your neighbors out for most of the day?

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Maybe talk with them again? If they’re still shitty about it then tell them you’ll call animal control about a loose dog but you should probably talk to them more than once in months if it’s really an issue.

    Or maybe be really passive aggressive and anytime the dog shows up walk it back to their house, ring the doorbell, and kindly return their escaped dog.

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Or maybe be really passive aggressive and anytime the dog shows up walk it back to their house, ring the doorbell, and kindly return their escaped dog.

      Unfortunately the dog’s owners are gone most of the day. Seemingly they let the dog out when they leave in the morning?

      They have chickens, I question if they’re trying to have the dog guard the chickens? If thats the case though it’s doing a shit job, one of the chickens got hit by a car like a month ago.

      • JustSo [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        6 hours ago

        So their chickens and their dog are wandering into the street and at least one chook has been hit by a car already?

        I know this is probably an outlandish suggestion, but it sounds like they need a fence.