What do you do when your neighbor’s unhinged German shepherd barks at phantom rivals for 16 hours straight?
Or tries to make a meal of your adorable Shih Tzu?
Answer: Dog Court is in session.
Yes, the City of Los Angeles actually holds trials with legal consequences where exasperated residents are allowed to bring to heel dog owners who can’t—or, more frequently, won’t—control their pets.
From excessive barking to physical assaults on animals and humans, these cases have been handled since 1987 by L.A. Animal Services in a process known officially as an administrative hearing but colloquially simply as Dog Court. As in human court, each party airs its grievances and presents evidence; two Animal Services officers, serving as judge and jury, take notes and render a verdict. Let it be said that no dog—or more accurately, no dog owner—is above Dog Court: one complainant recalled attending a hearing in the aughts during which the officer bragged that he’d recently presided over a nuisance case involving William Shatner’s famous brood of Doberman pinschers.
Comments