I agree Animal Control should never be the first resort for nuisance barking. Yet when a dog is neglected and the owners unresponsive, we felt it was the only option left. We are dog lovers and our dogs are never left outside for 5+ hours at night when no one is home. I also do my best to re-direct my dogs when they start nuisance barking (which I define as more than 10 minutes of continuous barking, not an occasional outburst when the postal carrier or UPS driver shows up).

Once AC got involved, the neighbors kept their dog inside when they went out for the evening and only had him in the yard in the daytime. That poor dog was never walked. We talked to neighbors and no one ever saw the dog outside the yard anytime between 6 am and 10 pm and I doubt that family walked the dog at midnight and 4 am. The dog also desperately needed to be groomed, too (it was some sort of fluffy white dog that had long hair). I think it was a classic case of people falling for a cute puppy but then ill equipped to train the dog, which results in a neglected adult dog.

But of course, I didn't even mention how one of their sons shot our window with a BB gun. I called the police when I saw the broken glass as I thought it was a break-in. The officer found the BBs and said it could only have been from that house due to the window position (it was the side window of a 3 section Bay window overlooking our back yard). However, he told me that the county would never prosecute so I had no options. I was bitter that we had to pay to replace the window. Sigh. I was relieved when we moved and didn't have to deal with that family anymore.

Anyhow, yeah, the HOA president was unfair. The seller had to fix the termite damage to the column after we went into escrow, so it should have been painted before we moved in. At most, the wood was replaced two weeks before we moved in but I guess the HOA president was annoyed we didn't paint it the first weekend we were there. He had too much time on his hands.