AN Alexandra Hills resident has called on Redland City Council to better police bylaws regarding noisy dogs and roaming cats.
Allen Murray said he had addressed council meetings three times on the issue and complained repeatedly to staff, with no results.
“No one seems to want to deal with the problem,” he said. “When it comes to Alexandra Hills, no one is interested. “There’s about 14 million cats on my property.”
Mr Murray said he was so annoyed about the issue that he had made a formal complaint to the State Ombudsman.
A council spokeswoman said Mr Murray had made 107 complaints over more than 20 years to council about animal management and staff had spent a great deal of time investigating his complaints.
“Council has provided a very high level of service in investigating Mr Murray’s complaints, including spending long periods of time at his property in an attempt to witness the noise from his neighbours’ dogs, as well as providing recording devices to him so he can capture the noise,” she said.
“As Mr Murray was not happy with council’s response it was suggested he speak with the ombudsman and council assisted by providing the necessary details to allow him to do that.
“Council’s animal management officers are regularly in the community – including at Alexandra Hills – responding to animal related complaints to ensure compliance with council laws.”
Mr Murray said he owned a large dog himself and one way of controlling the cat issue would be to let it off the chain when cats entered his yard but he did not want to do that.
“I take the time and trouble to curb my dog’s noise and pay consideration to the idiots around me and there are no shortage of idiots up here at Alexandra Hills,” he said.
He said a complaint had been made about his dog which had barked once. It also had been picked up once by animal control officers when loose.
That situation became a debacle when the pound accidentally gave his dog to someone else and had to retrieve it for him.
“All I want is the council to take on people with noisy dogs like they are supposed to,” he said.
“And they do nothing in regard to cats. They should trap ‘em.”
Over the past two years council has had to handle a growing number of complaints about people letting dogs run free on the islands, footpaths and environment reserves like the Scribbly Gums Conservation Area at Alexandra Hills.
Two weeks ago it announced the training of rangers to tackle pet issues on North Stradbroke Island.
