Neighbors launch painful, high-tech attacks on dogs

Advances in technology have created weapons to abuse dogs for doing what comes naturally — barking. Like guns, the devices have legal purposes and are, in most cases, marketed legally, but like guns they aren’t always used in legal or moral ways.Manufacturers advertise ultrasonic devices that use high-frequency sound to punish dogs when they bark.

Some neighbors have legitimate complaints about noisy dogs. Others, though, become indignant after one bark. Some hate living next-door to a dog that barks just occasionally. In using these devices instead of seeking a legal determination of excessive barking, these neighbors take the law into their own hands.

These devices are being used with increasing regularity, though most dog owners and enforcers of animal-cruelty laws don’t know it. Dogs that can’t escape suffer.

The devices are practically invisible — a stealth technology. They cause animals, particularly dogs, pain even when used at great distances. The dogs’ owners usually can’t even hear the devices. Some are hand-held, while others are easily hidden in the yard and may be disguised as bird feeders. To find the devices, you usually need highly technical sound equipment or to trespass upon your neighbor’s property.

According to Self-Defense Weapons, its ultrasonic Dog Chaser is “audible to dogs but not to humans.” To its credit, the company recommends that it be used only for self-defense. That’s not true of most other manufacturers, though.

The most outrageous product — a device hidden in beef-flavored gum — contains a “battery-powered mini car alarm” that is activated by cell phone, according to www.byte.com. That article’s author concedes that the device is “at the fringe of legality” but extols that “pranksters will have a field day with this product,” and that “Rover’s insides will commence wailing and howling something fierce.” And, the device can be reused after excretion: To find it for reuse, just call its number and listen for the ring.

Dogs affected by such high frequency sound devices hide under furniture, walk low to the ground, and shiver.

What can you do to protect your dog?

• Be suspicious if your dog shows hearing problems, hides under the bed, avoids an area of the lawn that it used to frequent, or avoids a neighbor.

• Be suspicious if your neighbors spend a lot of time outdoors standing around, particularly when your pet is out.

• Listen for high-pitched noises, especially when your dog barks.

• Take your dog to your veterinarian if it shows new signs of hearing problems.

• Write to members of Congress and animal-rights groups.

No statute or case law in Maryland directly addresses these devices. If repeated offenses can be proven, the attacker may be guilty of criminal harassment. Criminal statutes and animal-cruelty laws exist in most county codes, but are usually enforced by poorly funded agencies. The Maryland state criminal statute uses the term “torture” and the plaintiff’s burden of proving “pain” can be as burdensome as proving the attack took place.

One owner caught a neighbor using a close-range, handheld noise device against his tethered dog. The dog was writhing on the ground and frothing at the mouth until he intervened. A second witness said the dog had to be helped into the house. Criminal charges were brought for animal cruelty; however, the attacker avoided prosecution because of the inability to prove pain without violating the very law being prosecuted.

By encouraging people to use their devices against neighbors’ dogs these manufacturers open themselves to expensive civil liability lawsuits for nuisance and trespass. Plaintiff damages may even include, in some states, intentional infliction of emotional distress. Costs incurred in stopping the attacker are consequential damages. Consequential damages can also include the cost of installing a security system to replace the dog’s now-nonexistent bark, and any decrease in the home’s value caused by the neighbor’s nuisance activity. Punitive damages should be requested when malicious intent can be proven.

Glenn H. Meyer is an attorney at Meyer Law Firm in Owings Mills, Md.