People Need to Follow the Rules of Dog Ownership

I had an incident this past week involving my neighbors who did not follow the rules in Hillsborough County.  My nuisance neighbors have two medium sized dogs that they let roam outside without using leashes to restrain them.  They also tie them up to a tree out back from time to time, which violates Hillsborough County ordinance that dogs have access to fresh water when confined.  This also violates the rules of the community as I live in a townhome community that has rules written by the Home Owner's Association for all resident to abide by.  They are not allowed to tie their dogs up to a community tree unattended.  This neighbor has been cited several times by the HOA and has yet to change their ways.  Last week, I was out walking my dogs and turned to walk back toward my house when I saw both of my neighbor's dogs out front unrestrained.  Well wouldn't you know they started charging at my dogs.  The owners yell to me, "It's okay, they're friendly".  I started freaking out because I'm not going to take someone's word that their dogs are friendly.  Sure enough, one of the dogs bared his teeth at mine and I was trying to stand in between them and my dogs, using my legs and feet to shoo them away.  The neighbors kept trying to use vocal commands but their dogs weren't listening.  I was infuriated and was yelling at the neighbors that there is a leash law in Hillsborough County that they need to abide by.  I continued to yell at them that I couldn't believe they were allowing their dogs to run loose and that they needed to abide by the laws just as I was doing.  All they could say to me was that they couldn't believe I was kicking their dogs.  Well, let me make it clear that when their dogs are trying to attack mine, I'm going to try to separate them but I would not want to stick my hands in that mess (not that I couldn't have been injured anyway). 

Once I got back into the house, frightened and shaken by what just happened, I called Hillsborough County Animal Control.  They sent out an officer to investigate and after hearing my story, they issued a warning letter to the neighbor that they were in violation of County ordinance.  The animal control officer told me that the letter had a breakdown of fines that could be applied if they continue to break the laws.  Animal Control said I had the option of pressing charges should the issue not get resolved and it would cost the owners $175 per dog for violation of county ordinance and an additional $150 per dog for exhibiting aggressive behavior.  I chose not to press charges now as animal control said a violation letter is usually enough to do the trick and get people to change their ways.  It angers me that people think they don't have to follow laws and I'm glad that the incident wasn't worse.  I'm fortunate enough that my dogs did not suffer any injuries.

Please, if you own a dog or are looking into one, read up on the laws in Hillsborough County.  Their website does a nice job of breaking them down.  The laws are written for a reason, and when people abide by them, we can live harmoniously.