Aces Full of Links

Have you considered possible legal action? You may want to contact a legal clinic in your area and ask for advice, something I have advised many friends to do over the years, and something I have done myself (ask me about my new Beetle and the dealership where I bought it sometime).

I have referred many to Greater Boston Legal Services, http://www.gbls.org, and I would suggest strongly that you call them and say while you understand they don't serve your area, can they please suggest a legal clinic that does?

It's a good place to start and find out what your legal avenues are. And yes, I would advise capturing rats on film.

Actually, I changed my mind. I would recommend first that you place a call to the MSPCA as this dog is in peril, and is also, as you correctly state, the source of sustenance for the rats.

The thought of a dog locked in a cage without attention, walks/exercise, and proper care makes my blood boil. Animals, unlike humans, can not speak for themselves, and it is up to humans to take care of them and drop a dime when we see abuse. If you saw abuse of a child, you would act.

Your neighbors should not have pets if this is how they treat their dog, and MSPCA can bring them to court and make this a condition of their "behavior." Further, if this is how they treat a dog, I wonder how they treat their kids...

http://www.mspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reportcruelty_Report_Cruelty&reporthomelink

Report Cruelty

TO REPORT SUSPECTED ANIMAL CRUELTY PLEASE CALL:
(617) 522-6008 or (800) 628-5808
The MSPCA Law Enforcement Department encourages individuals to contact us to request an investigation of animal abuse. In fact, without the assistance of the public, our mission to prevent cruelty to animals, help those animals in need, and prosecute offenders would be nearly impossible.
ALL CALLS ARE CONFIDENTIAL
On weekends and holidays, phone messages are monitored no less frequently than every two hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. by an on-call officer.

You know, we may consider that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Patti,

I called the dog officer and the board of health repeatedly last summer to report the conditions under which the dog is cared for. They told me that a dog locked in a cage is not considered, I guess, illegal treatment (I can't remember the exact phrase), but they went to the home to make sure the dog had been to a vet, etc. I guess either the dog had been to a vet, or they made sure the dog went to a vet. And that was that. Living in ten days worth of waste was not considered neglect as the dog was fed.

And then when you consider how we treat our future food, you get a different perspective. I don't consider either to be humane, but you have a double standard if one is legal and the other isn't.

I find that the dog officer does everything possible to keep pets with their owners. Even if a dog bites a person (as happened to me while running), she seems to blame the victim. Otherwise, I suppose, she might have to take the dog away from the owner. That's my take, anyway. I was told how to avoid dogs, not what recourse I had, having been bitten. Considering this was a dog on a leash, I did not expect to be attacked.

Anyway, that's unrelated. I'm concerned about a battle of any kind with the neighbors as they're really not reasonable and the son seems very stupid and evil to me -- a bad combination. He used to have a b.b. gun, what does he have now, besides no father to tell him he can't shoot it into our yard?

Yikes.

Ah, reminds me of the kid next door to us. I'll email you separately with a story on that as I don't wish to discuss it in a public forum. As you can see, I understand where you're coming from w/r/t crazy neighbors.

Do follow up with the GBLS as to what your legal rights are, though. You don't necessarily have to act right away, but knowing what you can do legally might give you peace of mind of a sort.

Damn. Crazy/stupid/evil son with a BB gun is a severe deterrent.

Otherwise I'd go the "slow news day" route - wait until you get a pile of dead rats and then email whatever friendly neighborhood South Coast investigative reporter would love to put this on TV and tell him/her what's going on.

I think showing up with a bag of rats won't prove that they came from your neighbor's property, but a video would be great. (Try to resist the urge to provide a soundtrack with the music from that scene with all the dead soldiers in Gone With The Wind.)

It could be that the people you really need to target are the parents of the kids at that daycare... I don't know if you'd consider that to be crossing a line.

Flinging the dead rats into their pool would definitely be crossing a line, but it'd be damn funny. (At least until they retaliated.)

For whatever it's worth, not all dog officers are as owner-friendly as yours, and some seem to actively hate dogs. Maybe the one you have now will retire soon.

I think I remember Patti telling us a little about some neighbors a couple of years ago - if those are the same people.

The bag would prove we have access to a supply of dead rats. I guess they could accuse us of collecting fresh dead rats from somewhere else, but that's pretty far-fetched.

In any case, depositing the rats is not really meant to be proof of their existence, but rather proof of our frustration. Not that we'd actually do it, but it would be an attention-getter. I think the wrong kind of attention, but it would be a loud and clear message that we'd had it with the rats.

Capturing rats on video is much easier said than done. And, in fact, is probably less proof than the actual dead rats themselves. it's easier to fake a rat video than it is to collect dead rats.

Well, that's true if the rats will actually eat the poison. The neighbors no put so much food in the dog cage that the rats appear to have little interest in the baits. Unless they're desperate for food, they won't take the baits. And these are very well-fed rats. It's probably the only thing keeping them out of our house at this point.

Hopefully, they will get hungry soon.

What I was thinking was that they'd say they were YOUR rats and that you were just trying to harass your neighbors.

If the rats were caused by our neglect, that would be a really odd way to harass our neighbors... by calling attention to a problem we caused.

In fact, I'd pay cash money for the neighbors to decide to harass us in this way.

In reality, they technically would be our rats since it's the rats which cross the property line, not us.

In effect, we are admitting we have rats in our yard, but the reason we do is that they are wandering over from the 24/7 buffet.

Hey, maybe we can get them on running an unlicensed restaurant.

Unrelated, but this discussion reminds me of a shirt I keep meaning to order (but never will):

http://www.timanderic.com/store/tshirt.html

Because rats harbor disease, and if you contract one of these diseases it's easier for a doctor to diagnose if s/he knows you've been exposed to rats, I really felt the daycare parents should know. I contacted the daycare licensing board several years ago when we first saw the infestation. Their conclusion: no rats, because the holes were filled in. I really freaked out over the phone at them, which isn't a good strategy. "Does it not bother you that you have a daycare owner willing to cover up her rat infestation by filling in the rat holes every morning? Do you not care that these children are being exposed to rats every day??"

I think, frighteningly, sadly, that they have much worse problems than an exterior rat infestation.

At that time, I watched the owner take the children over to the dog cage to feed the dog a treat, literally seconds after I had seen several rats running around behind the cage. I personally felt that was an undesirable situation.

I feel it would be crossing the line to contact the parents directly. But I don't know what you do when the "proper channels" are broken. I think you have to work to fix the channels. This is not a daycare I would choose for my children, it's not clean -- there are animals in the house that are all over the baby changing area, etc., and the outside is a wreck and one look at the fecal matter piled in the dog cage and I wouldn't want my child there -- but perhaps she's cheap and the parents are desperate. Even though they have not made a good day care choice, they don't deserve their children sharing their outdoor play space with rats. I picture city people trying to get something nice for their children because much of our town is a little nicer than Fall River, and ending up with worse crap than they'd get in the city.

Massachusetts Code, 105 CMR: DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH 1/26/07 105 CMR - 1615

105 CMR 410.000: MINIMUM STANDARDS OF FITNESS FOR HUMAN HABITATION (STATE SANITARY CODE, CHAPTER II)

410.001: Purpose
The purposes of 105 CMR 410.000 are to protect the health, safety and well-being of the occupants of housing and of the general public, to facilitate the use of legal remedies available to occupants of substandard housing, to assist boards of health in their enforcement of this code and to provide a method of notifying interested parties of violations of conditions which require immediate attention.

410.010: Scope
(A) No person shall occupy as owner-occupant or let to another for occupancy any dwelling, dwelling unit, mobile dwelling unit, or rooming unit for the purpose of living, sleeping, cooking or eating therein, which does not comply with the requirements of 105 CMR 410.000.

410.550: Extermination of Insects, Rodents and Skunks
(A) The occupant of a dwelling containing one dwelling unit shall maintain the unit free from all rodents, skunks, cockroaches and insect infestation, and shall be responsible for exterminating them, provided, however, that the owner shall maintain any screen, fence or other structural element necessary to keep rodents and skunks from entering the dwelling.
(B) The owner of a dwelling containing two or more dwelling units shall maintain it and its premises free from all rodents, skunks, cockroaches and insect infestation and shall be responsible for exterminating them.

I won't hog your blog with the rest, but you get the idea. Feel free to read the rest of the code. And by the way, the number for the legal aid clinic in your area is: 508-880-6704.

Patti, I think the problem is not the the officials don't know the regulations. It's that they are pretending the problem does not exist.

And in many cases the regulations don't apply to our situation.

For example, I couldn't put a shed up against my fence. But they could build 3 more dog cages far away from their house on our property line.

It's not that they don't know it, it's that they're (possibly) chosing not to enforce it.

I don't know if this is a case of small-town-itis or connections, but the law is there to serve all of us.

Perhaps the state DPH is where to turn next if the local is turning a blind eye.

When we've contacted local and state agencies in the past, they've announced their presence loudly before coming to look for evidence. This has allowed covering up evidence to take place. It was pretty clear to me that there was a tip off somewhere along the way. I can only speculate about how and why.

So we have to think about this carefully, especially when it comes to gathering possible evidence, lest we be in the same situation as before: an annoyed neighbor and no resolution.

Gathering evidence and then getting legal advice is not a bad idea.

The problem comes down to food and feces.

If they didn't feed the dog outside and they cleaned the cage, the rats would get desperate for food, eat the poison, die and not come back.

Instead the rats don't eat the poison. And if they do, the population grows again to replace the dead rats because population is dictated by the available food. So you just encourage the more poison-resistant rats to breed.

It's idiocy.

I give you:

Media exposure prompts health officials to do their jobs

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/03/25/100963.aspx

The Mass College of Law in Andover has a special program in animal rights that might help you. I'd also contact the Office For Children which licenses daycare in the state - they would care about this. Lastly, I'd definately contact a news outlet.

Anna,

Unfortunately, no, the daycare licensing board does not care. "The holes are filled in, therefore there is no rat infestation." I was practically foaming at the mouth during and after my conversation with them. She knew they were coming and filled in the holes.