Q: Neighbor threatened to call animal control and the police if he saw my dog tide up outside.
I have a 3 month old pit bull. I sometimes tide him up in the yard because my yard is not fenced. Yesterday I had tide the dog up because he wanted to be out, but I had things to do in the kitchen. Whenever he is tide up I always leave the back door open with the screen door closed to be able to still see him. He was outside for about 20 minutes and he did bark for a little while since he doesn’t like to be outside by himself. My neighbor came into my property because he had heard the dog barking and he had apparently tangled himself up in a plant near were he was tide up. When I saw the neighbor near him I went out and asked if I could help him he stated that he was trying to untangle the dog because he was tired of hearing him bark and that he was going to call animal control and the police and acuse me of animal cruelty. I told him to leave my property and he said he would but that if he saw the dog tide up again he would call the police. What can I do if this happens?
A:
Hire a good lawyer to try to fight the charges. But you will likely lose. Leaving a dog tied up outside probably constitutes animal cruelty.
If you want to avoid criminal charges, build a fence or at least a dog run.
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