A Judge Orders Dogs To Operate Because They Bark

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The incessant barking of their neighbors' six dogs led a couple from rural southern Oregon, Debra and Dale Kein, down the path of bitterness. They started in the morning and did not stop for hours. So for 10 years.

Fed up with the noise, they finally decided to go to court in 2012 to find a remedy.

An appeals court confirmed Wednesday that the owners of the dogs, Karen Sweck and John Updegraff, will have to operate them to reduce their vocal cords, a controversial intervention that is prohibited in six states under certain circumstances, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

According to neighbors, the barking started as early as 5 a.m. and went on for hours while the owners were out of the house. The situation reached the point that their loved ones refused to visit them, took away sleep and disturbed their children when they returned from school, they said.

A jury ordered the owners of the dogs, Tibetan and Pyrenean mastiffs, to pay a compensation for licenses, so in six states it can only be practiced if a veterinarian concludes that there are medical reasons to carry it out. This is not the case in the dispute in Oregon.

Sweck assured the Oregonian that the dogs were like "employees" to the family, so the court's decision will affect their ability to manage their farm. "We don't have the dogs to disturb the neighbors," he said. "Dogs are to protect sheep."