INVASIVE SPECIES SEEN AS CAUSE FOR NOISE COMPLAINT

Fort Collins--The Colorado Department of Wildlife has confirmed that it is the invasive species, Canis Lupus Familiaris, which has caused the generation of nearly 3,000 noise complaints since 2002.

An observant neighbor, Carrie Ann Runn, in rural Larimer County was the first to discover that the area had been overrun by canids. “At first, no one believed me that there was a problem, but these animals are going to out-compete the coyotes and foxes leading to the eventual extinction of native wildlife, so I just kept calling until someone would listen to me.”

The Humane Society confirmed that since computerization of its records in 2002, it has warned, ticketed or summoned five families in the community a total of 102 times, based on the complaints of Ms. Runn and a helpful Humane Society employee who assisted Ms. Runn when her cause seemed hopeless. That employee coached Ms. Ruhn, signed as a secondary complainant – a process designed to assure that abuse of the system cannot occur—and appeared with her in Court against the neighboring violators, three of whom lived one half mile from Ms. Runn. “That just shows you how bad it was. In my house, with my windows closed, I could identify each individual animal at all hours of the night. They were louder than the rock band that practices Fridays between midnight and 2:00 a.m. in my neighbor’s garage.”

A spokesperson for the Society spoke canidly [sic]; “We were unaware of the scope of the problem until Ms. Runn doggedly brought it to our attention. It is not the policy of the Humane Society to turn its back on issues of this magnitude. We were simply following the law.”

The law does allow individuals to own canids, however it strongly discourages any generation of noise by the animals. Excessive barking-- exceeding the standard of one individual bark per day--is unallowable. Large breeds trained to guard livestock are allowed to growl in warning one additional time per day, provided that it can be demonstrated that the growl was necessary and met the criteria of the Humane Society for “purposeful outburst.”

One of those families charged with the crime of ownership with failure to control, a Class 2 Misdemeanor, agreed to speak with The Bull’s Underbelly.

“I really felt that we had done our best to control the behavior of our domesticated canid. We had brought it in at night, purchased a bark collar, but it wasn’t until Ms. Ruhn was so thoughtful and kept track of each time our canid barked that we realized that we were, in fact, at fault. Who could know that at half a mile, a single bark could cause someone to lose sleep due to worry for the environment. Ms. Runn should be commended for her commitment to native species.”.”

Another family member added, “I absolutely lived in fear of visits from the Humane Society, so we had to have our animal put down so it did not disturb the wildlife, or Ms. Ruhn, any longer. I can’t believe we were so selfish.”