Barking Dogs

Legal General Legal Matters
21

Indeed my aloof outer image crumbles when we get to this topic. Blew
all my dough to move to the country, and now its radios, bird scare
bombs, kareoke, etc. 24-hour radios to scare monkeys that only eat
fruit in the day. My only hope now is if WTO will wipe out the farm
economy :slight_smile: If anybody else is gonna move to the country try
and pick “all I see is trees in every direction, no farms” setting.
Of course then there will be even more hunters dogs, and pigeon ransom
netter mafias. Gave lots of pocket radios away until there was this
one guy who wasn’t interested.

Anyway, with earplugs in don’t you feel your ears will get moldy? And
what about if there is something funny going on outside that you would
like to know about, like a fire. Anyway, if I need to use them I’m
glad that they seem to fall out after an hour, or maybe I took them
out, as I always find them on the bed.

P.S. is it true that Taiwanese, having grown up with lots of noise,
like to keep the TV on all day after immigrating to the US, lest all
the silence feel spooky?

If you are one of those types that is goal oriented and focused so
that surrounding distractions will not interfere with your game plan,
or you’ve got lots of family members that make enough noise, then you
will do great in Taiwan.

If on the other hand, you have grown up watching TV commercials where
“ah, peace and quiet, as I rest in my tent next to this woodsy lake”
is valued, then, ur… well, welcome to taiwan boot camp where such
ideas must go, otherwise you will never learn to be goal oriented, and
will instead fret neverendingly unable to convince just that one last
neighbor to cooperate.

Anyways, I am so lucky that I have two shacks separated by a
ridge line. If valley A is screwed up today then I can go to valley
B, as a psychological comfort. Apparently valley B has now some
farmer who has rigged up loudspeakers and radio to scare some
animal… every few minutes it drifts over here… I will do the usual
“find the station he has picked, compute the time lag, 3 sec. per
kilometer, to know distance”… As valley B is 5 km. wide and is
bisected by Dajia River, if I were to pursue the issue it would
probably take a whole day… and then another would pop up … etc.
and what if one wouldn’t cooperate in finding more environmentally
sound ways to deal with his problem, or likes playing the radio like
that… anyways, to sanitze my environment I would then spend many
days each year doing that and always be on edge about the next
occurance. However if I was the above goal oriented type I would be
much more happy and get much more done of the stuff I wanted to do.
Humm, so make sure there is lots of stuff that you want to do real bad
so you don’t get caught up in “saving the world”.

P.S. last night hunters came up with a rifle. Luckily they left when
asked the 13th time. I told the cops, “hey cops, a rifle you can
catch, hurry!”. They said “we’ll make a note of it.” [No, these
aren’t yuan2zhu4min2 aborigines].

P.P.S. 1995.11.30 newspaper: A Hongqi computer engineer from the USA
got killed in Taibei when he argued with the drunk ladies next door
over noise.

22

I live on the very northern edge of town with
a view of green trees. A few years ago, all
the stray dogs of Peitou used to congregate
just down on the street by the bus terminal
parking lot… They used to make a loud barking
clamor together – about five dogs. I kept
telling my girlfriend that I was going to get
a big ax handle and go down and kill as many
dogs as I could with my bare hands… (Screw
everyone who gives you that hoo-haa about saving
all the stray dogs – I say bag 'em and burn
'em all…) Anyway, one night, at the veritable
height of the clamor, about 12 midnite, a man’s
voice suddenly rose up amid all the barking.
But he wasn’t speaking with words – he was
sort of singing in a high pitched hum, almost
like an opera singer… His voice was quite
loud and caught the attention of all the barking
dogs. The man’s voice changed: he started to
lower the tone of his subtle wail until, as he
dropped it into a deeper key, all the dogs began
to fall silent. The man on the street, whom I
could not see from my window, was a magician of
some kind… He kept up his wail until all the
dogs were silent. When he stopped and left, none
of the dogs started their barking again… I’d
say, aside from the UFO I once saw flying over
the hills south of San Hsia, that was one of
the weirdest experiences I have ever had… Since
that time, most of the dogs have disappeared and
it is surprisingly peaceful in my corner of Peitou
except every six months or so, when some
unscrupulous developer hires the gravel trucks to
haul illegal land-fill up the mountain for dumping
in the middle of the night… What a lawless,
dirty country Taiwan is!

popofied
23

My sympathy for all the people who have had to put up with barking dogs at night. Somehow I’ve managed to avoid the problem in my four years in Taipei. By all means, do what it takes to shut the dogs up. I admire the ingenuity of the guy who soundproofed his windows. It’s great to have a nifty solution like that posted here for others to see.

On the other hand…

[rant begins here]

…some of the remarks in this thread can’t go unchallenged, to wit:

I have never seen a dog in Taiwan who has been house-broken

There’s one house-broken dog per floor in my apartment building.

I have never seen a dog who has been taught any commands (like “sit”, “down”, “come”, “heel”, etc.)

They’re out there.

I have never seen a Taiwanese person pet a dog

You’re looking in the wrong places.

I have also never seen a Taiwanese person walking their dog on a leash.

I see it pretty much every day.

Dogs in Taiwan are treated the same as pigs and cows are treated in the States. They are always outside and they have almost no contact with humans.

Many people in my neighborhood are gaga about their dogs, and about mine when I’m out walking him.

Okay, to be fair, I don’t know where you live, so maybe the situation in your neck of the woods truly is as you say. But be careful about extrapolating to all of Taiwan.

And to be fair, you were the one who was dealing with the dog noise problem, not me, so maybe I should be understanding of the exasperation in your post, but sheesh, the harshness of your anti-Taiwanese rant is an embarrassment. Couldn’t you have toned it down a bit? Of the 23 million Taiwanese on this island, how many have you maligned unfairly? Gotta be careful about those rants. A guy can make himself look bad.

[end of rant]

24

Well I have lived all over Taipei from Zhong He to Tian Mu, to Muzha, and Da’An and I have seen dogs being walked in Muzha, and dogs kept outside in tiny little cages in Tian Mu and Jing Mei by respectable wealthy people.

Whilst I would agree that the Taiwanese in general seem to treat animals with little consideration for their welfare, it is not fair to condemn all of Taiwan on that score. The English profess to be a great nation of animal lovers, and yet have slaughtered literally millions of healthy animals during the recent foot and mouth outbreak. My impression of the English and Irish (I can’t speak for Americans) is that the welfare of animals is far more important than the welfare of people.

Hexuan

25

Does anyone have the number for noise control in Taipei? How do you use it? Can you just ring up, say that there’s someone outside making a lot of noise and give them your address, or do you have to wait for them to arrive or something?

Bri

26

the noise control folks are very efficient in my experience. You don’t need to see them, just phone and 20 minutes later all goes quiet…

it’s worth it just for the sense of empowernment when the bureaucracy responds.

I’ll dig out the number when I’m back in Taipei tomorrow.

27

Taipei City EPB: 02 2720 6301
other local governments may have their own offices. You could ask the (central govt) EPA: 080 066 666

28

What experience is that ?

29

my experience: I live on the Zhongxiao Fuxing junction in an old apartment with badly fitting windows. A department store is being built there now, had 2 MRT lines constructed over the past few years.

Loud construction work is not supposed to continue after, I think, 10pm but it often did, partciularly as the deadline for opening the MRT approached (also, they needed, and occasionally still need, to operate some huge heavy machinery that they cannot operate during the daytime since it would all but block Fuxing). I stopped all night time work every time I wanted with a single phone call to the number above.

30

I have found the EPB to be utterly useless.

31

Looks like those savvy Oregonians have found a way to deal with pesky dog problems:

Dogs Poisoned in Portland Park - Update

August 5, 2003
Tweleve dogs died as the result of being poisoned in Portland’s Laurelhurst Park between July 3 and 9. There were 16 reported cases of poisoning during this time period. A reward leading to a conviction in this case has been capped at $15,000.

The Oregon Humane Society is continuing with the investigation and following
up on tips left on the OHS investigation phone line. Anyone with information
that might help solve the cases is encouraged to call the OHS Investigations
Department at (503) 285-7722, ext. 214. “We are hoping for a happy ending
for this,” said Lisa Swanson, OHS Special Agent. “The right phone call can
make that happen.”

32

This is in the Legal Forum. I have heard that construction work should only begin after 8am. Does anyone know which law or regulation applies and how I can get a copy of it ? The EPB or EPA or whatever they’re called refuse to do anything (surprise surprise).

33

I’m not 100% sure of this, but I believe that the construction law you mentioned is only a city government ordinance, i.e. doesn’t apply to Taipei County (you’re in Yunghe, aren’t you?) At least that’s the excuse we were given (for Hsintien).

34

I’m not 100% sure of this, but I believe that the construction law you mentioned is only a city government ordinance, i.e. doesn’t apply to Taipei County (you’re in Yonghe, aren’t you?) At least that’s the excuse we were given (for Hsintien (Xindian)).[/quote]

Nope. I’m in Taipei City.

35

No time to look, but there should be something in here.

http://cemnt.epa.gov.tw/eng/webez1/images/product/noise.doc

Or here:

http://cemnt.epa.gov.tw/eng/

Cheers.

HG

36

Sounds right to me,. The construction next door to me starts at 8AM sharp every morning. Someone once provided the noise control number - 27206301

Brian

37

The people at that number are useless. I just called them, and they told me they only handle industrial pollution. Have to call the cops. They’ll be all over it, I’m sure :wink: .

38

Most of the replies, here, are suitable for ‘foreigners’, who will probably be gone in a short time and have no inspiration to maintain peaceful relations with the neighbor for a prolonged period.

I bought a house next door to 3 German Shepherds in small cages, which bark at any odd hour of day or night.

He keeps a safe distance from his neighbors so that he can’t be friendly enough with anyone to approach him about it.

In the interest of maintaining harmony, I have chosen to suffer in , well, silence.

m

39

most local dog owners won’t give a shit if their dog barks at night, or during the day. they see it as the ‘dog just being a dog.’ or they don’t even notice the barking at all. talk to the owner. then call the epa. then its time for u to take the law into ur own hands:

water baloons. bb gun. slingshot. firecrackers.

best one is DOG WHISTLE(sorta effective) or plug-in ultrasonic frequency speaker/horn device(drives them nuts). U can train ur neighbor’s dogs from the comfort of ur own yard. They keep barking? crank it up and leave it on all night, or all week. all month.

40

I ended up writing a note (Taiwanese girlfriend edited it for grammar) that made it sound like the whole neighborhood was up in arms about their dogs barking all day long. Three days later, still haven’t heard a peep.