HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/17/2018 Item 13, Willis
Purrington, Teresa
From:Pease, Andy
Sent:Sunday, July 15, 2018 8:35 PM
To:CityClerk
Subject:FW: Council Members: Reminder thoughts, please, concerning Dog Ordinance
For the record.
From: Christine Willis <chrissiewillis@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 2:15 PM
To: Harmon, Heidi <hharmon@slocity.org>; Gomez, Aaron <agomez@slocity.org>; Rivoire, Dan <DRivoire@slocity.org>;
Christianson, Carlyn <cchristianson@slocity.org>; Pease, Andy <apease@slocity.org>; Sims, Shannon
<ssims@slocity.org>
Subject: Council Members: Reminder thoughts, please, concerning Dog Ordinance
Dear Council Members and Mayor Harmon,
To each of you, thank you for speaking with me.
Might I please remind you to consider, when modifying the dog ordinance, to weigh the following four points:
1. Please make a clear distinction between the right to own a dog and a perceived right to allow a dog to bark.
2. We can't rely upon neighbors to have sufficient empathy toward another neighbor's discomfort caused by their
barking dog. A study published in Society & Animals found people to more more empathetic toward dogs than toward
adult people.
(Study link: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685306-12341440)
3. If an individual in Animal Control is given the power to make the decision to require cessation of barking (without
formal guidelines), please ensure that that person is trained to understand the psychological, physiological (see below
on ANS), and emotional trauma resultant of noise (dog barking in this case) that is intermittent, unpredictable, and
uncontrollable, and that he or she is well versed in the city's noise ordinance. Note concerning the autonomic nervous
system:
When you hear a dog barking... , it gives a little jump and you start feeling tense. This reaction is
because the ANS is making changes in the inner working of the body. When the barking does not
stop, the neurons continue to react, and your body becomes increasingly
tense. http://www.howtostopbarkingdogs.org/health-impact-of-barking-dogs.htm
4. Index of Section Seven: the Harm section of barkingdogs.net .
The Deleterious Impact of Exposing People to Noise
http://www.barkingdogs.net/exposeindex.shtml
Sincerely,
Christine Willis
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