Neighbors Sue Doggy Daycare Over Noise

Just wait until the Boeing 737-700s fly overhead Fair Haven. They won't hear the dogs bark. :-( Stop Tweed expansion. [email protected]

How do the residents hear dogs over the dirt bikes, altered guns-shot mufflers, choppers, roaring trucks, etc??

I had/have a neighbor who's dog barked for 14-18 hours a day. Every day, Every night, All night long,

I complained until no one would listen, which was of course the first complaint.

PD tried, but the response time was 12 hours to a full day before they could respond due to the nature of other serious crimes and by then....

LCI at the time basically said "What's a City Ordinance ? oh those, they're unenforceable
not our problem." but mow your lawn its an inch too high.
animal control is understaffed and overworked and can only do so much.

There is nothing that can be or will be done.

The City refuses to address ANY Quality of Life issues despite their fake hype and claims that they do.

I assume they have already sued Amtrak and the state for the noise their trains make. I wonder how that's going. Its much easier to pick on small local business which is on the other side of those busy tracks

This is a subject that is close to my heart. I am a dog LOVER! I have owned many dogs over the years. The one thing I always made sure of, was that they did not interfere with the neighborhood in a negative capacity. When I have had wandering dogs, I put in fences, or invisible fences.

However, I now have a few 3 year old crazy pups who, regardless of training, will bark at a butterfly if it comes into the yard! They are dogs! You cannot train them not to bark! However, you can control the annoyance for the neighbors by limiting the amount of barking that will not interfere with everyone else's day and I am very conscientious of this! My neighbors love me for paying attention to my lovable barking pups! But these are only 2 dogs!

As a homeowner, I just make them come back to the house while they are barking; however, for an establishment such as a doggy daycare, you have to do so much more than that! Sound barriers? Partitioning, Sound Blocking, Acoustic walls. So many things that can be done so why let neighbors have to deal with you making money to board dogs? How could the city allow an establishment like this to be within a neighborhood nearby.?

A doggy daycare, you not only have the responsibility of taking care of MANY MANY of those dogs, (not arguing that you don't) but acknowledging the impact they have on other people who own homes in the area. Do the owners of this facility not understand the ramifications of those that want to sell their homes nearby?

I think the major issue here is not only quality of life, but property values! I seriously know that if I were to be looking at two different homes in the similar neighborhood of equal interest, I will NOT choose the one with a doggy day care center in the back of the property. Professionally I know that a home for say 200k in a peaceful neighborhood vs. a 200k home backed up to a doggy day care will reduce the value of that home to……...ZERO in my opinion! No one, and I mean NOONE wants

The noise from the dogs should be the last thing the neighborhood should be worried about.

Rocco: it's not an industrial zone if people live there.
And why is doggy day care necessary? They're dogs. Leave them at home when you're gone like people have done for millennia.

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on January 11, 2021 1:56pm
Try to warn you all.But you did not listen

Avenue A Gentrification Complete With Exclusive Doggy Social Club

To understand how deep the gentrification roots have grown throughout Alphabet City look no further than 34 Avenue A Ruff Club, and exclusive doggy daycare and human social club. At last, New Yorkers using their dogs as test-run babies can experience the pressure of getting little Esperanto and Loisaida into preschool too!

https://gothamist.com/news/avenue-a-gentrification-complete-with-exclusive-doggy-social-club

East Village Gentrification Goes to the Dogs
Can a neighborhood retain any semblance of a reputation for edge when a "contemporary pet care hub" called Ruff Club not only opens right on Avenue A in New York City's East Village, but also gets a writeup in the New York Times' Thursday Styles? Those include "toy aggression" and the inability to share treats; not allowing a handler to put on a collar or take her for a walk; excessive cowering and barking; and showing the intense separation anxiety that Zoloft shows when left with friends.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/fashion/ruff-club-brings-exclusivity-to-the-pet-world.html

@CityYankee "How do the residents hear dogs over the dirt bikes, altered guns-shot mufflers, choppers, roaring trucks, etc??" Thank you for focusing on the real problems with noise. The noises you state are all day long and it seems there is either no vehicle noise laws or they are not being enforced. Adding the loud exhaust systems to cars usually affects the cars emission systems.

A doggy daycare is an excellent use of a building that's otherwise mostly vacant in an area of the city where train and highway noise is already prevalent. Caving in to the demands of a handful of residents who want to tailor the use of other private property to suit their needs is a very dangerous precedent to set. Who will want to open a business and contribute to our tax rolls if they're afraid a few self-serving neighbors can take down their business even after the business secured all the proper variances and permits. This is nimby-ism at its worst and we shouldn't pretend it's anything other than that.

@RHeerema "Just wait until the Boeing 737-700s fly overhead Fair Haven. They won't hear the dogs bark." Oh, you mean that 15-20 seconds of noise that is providing area residents with new destinations thereby bypassing Bradley field in, sorry, near Massachusetts?

Dear steve, I do believe there are noise/decibel/hours ordinances on the books but, like everything else, they are not enforced by the authorities.

I am interested in your comment about the altered mufflers and emissions. The gunshot and racecar mufflers are certainly annoying and the gunshot sound is often startling but what do you know about the emissions part of it? BTW, my mechanic told me the gunshot one is definitely an illegal alteration.
Thanks for the info you can share.

@ByTheGraceofGod, you wrote, "The noise from the dogs should be the last thing the neighborhood should be worried about."

I invite you to take a walk on the sidewalk of Peck Street at the intersection of Monroe St. The barking and howling of dogs can be clearly heard from the sidewalk, so no need to trespass into backyards. If you think you could live with nonstop barking for 8 - 11 hours a day, 365 days a year, please feel free to make a market value offer on our homes and you can have at it. Barking generally starts at 8:52 a.m - 12 p.m. and then again at 1:50 p.m. - 7 p.m. On some weekends, dogs remain outside all day from 8:52 a.m. - 7 p.m. Feel free to tell us, then, that nonstop loud barking of upwards of 35 dogs is "the last thing we should be worried about." I'm sure the two 80+ year old tenants that reside on Peck St. would love to discuss that with you. Of note, this morning at 8:03 a.m., a large brown dog, placed in an outdoor pen at this dog facility was permitted to howl and bark outside our backyards for approx. 10 straight minutes before some employee put the dog back inside the facility. This is how most of us are awoken in the mornings. Come by this morning or any other day and enjoy the sounds yourself. We welcome your input after you experience the barking yourself.

Firstly, its not even necessary for a doggy daycare to have outdoor space. Its nice, but not necessary.

Secondly, Jaffe Holden is an internationally very well respected acoustician. It looks like Paw Haven may have not followed all of their recommendations.
1) It looks like the acoustic blankets on the fence may have gaps between them (or this may be duct tape...its hard to tell. There isn't any sound blanket on the end fences and any gap entirely defeats the purpose.
2) There are no absorptive materials I can see attached to the building façade above the pen.
3) It looks like they may be keeping their garage doors down 50% but have they installed absorptive materials within the space? It all matters.

Forgive me as I don't have the source, but I do remember reading that sudden loud noises, like barking or horns, cause much greater stress than more gradual or constant noises, like a passing train or a steady stream of traffic. Those constant sounds are far easier to tune out than piercing and repetitive sounds like barking. I would personally much rather have the occasional plane or train cause noise than constant barking. My neighbor recently got a dog, and even just a few barks completely breaks my concentration while working. Noise pollution is the worst!

@CityYankee, many years ago exhaust systems were just pipes and mufflers but today's cars have catalytic converters and multiple oxygen sensors that monitor emission output. Tampering with these systems is a federal offense but I never heard of anyone being charged with such a crime. The noise though is the most offensive result of these exhaust kits.
What's needed is for law enforcement to have parked police units with sound measuring equipment and offenders should be given tickets with high fines but I doubt it will ever happen. The police have their hands full today and things are getting worse with people getting out of control.

It would be great if the New Haven Public Library/NHPL could "lend" noise monitors (and maybe air monitors, too) to residents. There are noise and air pollution issues all over New Haven.

Thanks to NPR for this idea: https://www.npr.org/2015/05/24/408786881/a-home-air-quality-monitor-that-can-be-checked-out-from-the-library

So steve, do the altered mufflers pollute more?

Peck Street Resident: I believe you wrote this:

"If you think you could live with nonstop barking for 8 - 11 hours a day, 365 days a year, please feel free to make a market value offer on our homes and you can have at it."

I have a better idea: Put your house on the market RIGHT NOW and some dumb ass from NYC will give you way more than what it is worth and buy it most likely sight unseen for cash.

Robert Moses:

I invite you to come to the east side of Derby, towards the downtown side, where we are subject to exhaust fumes due to heavy traffic, loud jake brakes, gunshot exhaust systems, loud motor cycles, pick up trucks, etc... for typically 12 hours a day every day on what is our answer to the BQE

It is never quiet anymore where I have lived for over 30 years now.
NEVER

In fact, I used to be able to hear the barking dogs from the dog pound across the river, but lately I can't even hear myself think if out in my garden - and I won't even go into how stressed out these apparently legal gunshot exhaust systems stress out my senior dog to where she is frightened of even going outside.

My grandfather had an apartment in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, that I always loved.

I recently looked it up to see if it was for rent as I'm very seriously considering a move back to my old neighborhood once I retire, and to my surprise I saw that the shop below is of all things a Dog Spa called The Brooklyn Canine Club.

I would do anything to be able to rent/own that apartment above that shop rather than live in this rotten toxic noisy angry god awful state, but unfortunately I still have about 6 more years to go till I am retired.

Everyone is still overlooking the bigger issue here.

CITY ORDINANCES ARE NOT ENFORCEABLE BY ANYONE IN AUTHORITY !!!!

This comes from Upper City Management.

QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES ARE NEVER ADDRESSED !!!!

Loud mufflers have been an issue since inception. If its too loud its illegal !!

Hell, I have been pulled over for your car "sounded' like you were going too fast. SOUNDED !!
I was doing 10 MPH in DT traffic and a bike cop caught up to me from 2 blocks away.
as boom cars with music so loud I couldn't hear the officer speak and dirt bikes drive by....
I left it in 1st gear cause traffic was crawling.

Explain that !!

Motorcycles and dirt bikes have gone unaddressed for over 30 years !!!!

How many have actually sat in CMT meeting with the PD and heard the multitude of excuses as to why we can't enforce rules.

Its a no rules free for all with no repercussions !!!!

Is everyone just going to ignore the amount of unchecked crime, the 24/7 extremely loud and debilitating sounds of gunshots and mufflers, or the amount of drug deals that happen in that neighborhood daily? How about the level of animal ABUSE? You want to complain about the barking of happy, well-taken-care-of dogs but overlook your neighbor whose beating his in his own backyard. Oh, please.

If we're talking "quality of life" here, why does all of this not bother you as much as dogs barking? Why aren't you suing the town or police department for doing literally nothing to mitigate this?-- Oh, I forgot. Retired police chief has some leverage.

I call BS. This is a product of people having too much time on their hands, sitting at home without jobs.

Dog Daycare is extremely important for a town where over 80% of its inhabitants are pet-owners. The honest, hard-working families and singles who work or attend school in New Haven need somewhere to drop their dogs off during the day. In the case of emergencies, people need places for their pets to stay over night. Many people need dog daycare in order to even keep their pets. You want to shut down a facility like this, then don't complain when the shelters overfill and you want to condemn and point the finger at other people who have to surrender their animals-- because those are the type of people in the middle of this.

They did the sounds studies, and it looks like the facility has made changes to improve the issue.

If you're concerned about not being able to sell your home, do some research and find out what's actually going on in the housing market. Someone from NYC will pick your house up within .05 seconds of it going up and then put it right back up for sale not once they hear barking but once they see the level of crime around them.

This is petty. Get a job or find a new hobby.

In the previous NHI article mentioned above it was stated that the city made a zoning variance to allow for this business to locate there…
" Paw Haven was approved for a variance by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) in 2019 for the potential noise issue the business poses. The BZA staff approved the special exception with reason to believe that the business's noise would be less intrusive than the noise from U-Haul trucks, the railroad tracks, and Interstate 91 which already exist in the neighborhood. At the BZA the co-founders had a petition in support of the facility signed by more than 100 people and approvals from management teams in East Rock and Fair Haven. The variance granted allows the Paw Haven facility to be 222 feet from a residential zone, where 500 feet is currently required."

• so the zoning variance turned out to be a mistake, the council didn't realize the amount and type of noise created by the business would be a nuisance. Now that everyone knows better, the city should help the business owners find a more suitable location where the noise won't be near a residential neighborhood. In the meanwhile, the doggy daycare needs to set up a playpen inside for the dogs to exercise and play in, and stop using the outside area.
  Robert Moses and RHeerema- yup, dogs barking and babies crying are worse sounds to human ears than planes or trains or highway noise. https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/policy_guidance/noise/basics/
  And
  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09524622.2019.1576147
  And
  https://ceds.org/kennels/?amp

Q CityYankee "So steve, do the altered mufflers pollute more?" Some times owners block oxygen sensors in an effort to turn off the check engine light to pass the emissions test. In that case, the tailpipe emissions increase due to the computer not getting accurate feedback from the sensors to adjust the air-fuel ratio for clean engine fuel burning.
Still it's noise pollution that is the worst part for me.

The dog barking is not all day. They're is more noise around this area than dogs. A lot of people have dogs around here. They walk them etc. noise here is rediculous. Cars no mufflers. Motorcycles. Train starts at 6 am. Mopeds ATV highway ambulance fire trucks. Somebody must not like dogs to go as far to court. What a joke. How about all the fire crackers and M80. Late at night. Leave those pets alone. A least they are not in the street biting people.

How the author fails to mention or compare the train noise exposure to the dog park is beyond me. Notwithstanding the train tracks, they claim they are marginalized? Really? You live next to an industrial zone that pays taxes. Jurors are going to look at the train tracks and laugh at these plaintiffs.

Nhrealist- the homes were there before the doggie daycare whereas the railroad was there before the homes. The NH/NY/
-There are federal mandates in place that prevent unnecessary "whistle blowing" in residential areas UNLESS there are trespassers or workers on the tracks.
-the exception to the above is when a train reaches a public grade crossing then it is continuous "whistle blowing" for 15/20 seconds but no less than 1/4 mile before reaching the crossing. There are designated quiet zones where this is prohibited.
-the 2nd is not applicable because there are no public crossings in this specific area.

-these federal laws/rules/mandates are all in the interest of public SAFETY NOT public COMFORT

• Shoreline East has limited service which runs every 2-3 hours. Amtrak regional service is every 1-2 hours. On average the combined train service is every hour .
  -Trains don't run every 5-10 minutes 24/7.
  I'm not sure what "noises" you're referring to
  Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

Anyone that played in a garage band knows the cheap solution- simply plaster empty egg cartons all over the walls. Presto! It works at absorbing the sound. Just remember to remove the eggs, first.;)

For everyone complaining about the ancillary quality of life stuff often associated with NOIZE, remember......... we get the government we deserve. Can you imagine if a candidate for council knocked on your door and said here is my platform:
I'm concerned with how much New Haven spends. I can't take my kids to Disney, why does the city believe they can spend money for.....(fill-in-the-blank) and beg Yale for more hand-outs. I fully support zoning officers, animal control officers, and police to....drum-roll please..... enforce quality of life problems. Those exhaust mufflers that don't actually muffle sound that you hear scream by all day? Let me be near you one day and let's video it, write letters to New Haven Superior Court traffic court prosecutors, and say "Do something!!!!!!!"

Oh captain, my captain.

Anywho.......... let the next candidate tell me how they will get me free stuff if I vote for them.