What A Meeting

Wow! Tonight's meeting went great. We seemed to address a lot of issues, and there was a great amount of attendance, I'd say at least 25 residents. It's getting late so I'll have a full meeting recap posted sometime tomorrow.

Santa Ana puts teeth in barking-dog law

This is in reference to the comment about the lonely white dog in building "P". This is also a great issue to bring up at the Association Meeting Tonight.

BY DOUG IRVING

The ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA –The city has created a new category of public nuisance: dogs that bark incessantly for no apparent reason.

And under the law, the owners of such dogs may have to pay.

The city has received nearly 1,000 complaints of noisy animals since 2001, but only three rose to the level of a criminal proceeding. The new law, adopted late Monday, allows the city to issue citations to the owners of barking dogs without pursuing a criminal case.

The law describes a nuisance dog as one that barks or "makes any noise" incessantly for 30 minutes or intermittently for 60 minutes in any 24-hour period. It gives dogs a break when they're barking to protect their property against possible trespassers, or when someone is teasing or provoking them.

The city's law allows enforcement officers to write citations based on a signed complaint, without seeing or hearing the offending dog. Owners would get a warning for the first offense; they could face a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail after that.

The law also sets down minimum requirements for shelter, water and food for dogs. And it requires owners to clean up the mess "in a sanitary manner" when their dog takes a bathroom break on someone else's property.