WAGGA LOCAL COURT
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IT WAS enough to send neighbours of Forest Hill man Ethan Beer barking mad.
The noise of yapping dogs kept on his property became the subject of numerous complaints to Wagga City Council and landed him in court on Wednesday.
Pleading guilty to the offence of allowing a noise emission within 28 days of a noise abatement direction, 23-year-old Beer was fined $440 and warned future offences could attract a maximum penalty of $3300.
"The council is on to you, the penalties can only get worse," magistrate Megan Greenwood told Beer.
Council submitted to the court a copy of a 28-day noise abatement direction given to Beer dated June 12.
The letter detailed a history of complaints and noise abatement directions going back several months.
It said a nuisance dog order was issued on February 5, and on March 24 council received another noise complaint about continuous barking by dogs at Beer's premises.
The letter said on April 3 a noise abatement direction was issued, which ordered Beer to "cease the emissions of offensive noise ... by excessive barking or other noise".
According to council, it received more complaints about the dogs on May 7, May 8, May 13, May 20, May 27 and June 3.
The June 12 letter required Beer to keep his dogs quiet for 28 days - until July 9.
But, council alleged, Beer allowed his dogs to bark on July 2.
Beer represented himself in court and told Ms Greenwood he had removed three of the six dogs he had on the property and now had three staghounds.
"I don't have the barking dogs," Beer said.
"They (the remaining dogs) are a lot quieter than they were."
Beer said he had been trying to move house.
"You have to understand the maximum penalty is $3300, so if this keeps happening that is where it is headed," Ms Greenwood told Beer.
A recent Domain Group/Neilsen study published in Fairfax Media publication The Sydney Morning Herald on November 17 said barking dogs were responsible for 27 per cent of neighbourly disputes.