Pet owners will be investigated if their dog barks for over 3 minutes under strict new noise law.
The City of Darwin Council in Australia set the limit in a bid to silence annoying dogs.
Under the new law, if a pooch barks for over three minutes in a 30-minute period during the night or 6 minutes in an hour during the day, neighbors can call the police for an investigation.
A debate sparked online since the new strict noise levels were announced. Some people took to social media to support the law.
One social media user said: “It is always a tricky area, but hopefully it will make people a bit more responsible for their dogs. No-one should have their peace broken by a continuous barking dog.”
Another wrote: “Dogs barking all day while the owners are at work … try being a shift worker who needs to sleep.”
But not all people were happy about the strict rules.
One woman wrote: “Maybe easy revenue raising? How about they do something to stop the antisocial behavior that leads to dogs barking instead?”
Someone else said: “I’m glad my dog barks at night lately with all the crime in my neighborhood.”
But there will also be exemptions under the new law, such as storms, peak-foot traffic, mail delivery and emergency sirens.
Council also reduced the number of dogs a resident can have to only four.
Animal lovers were able to have five dogs registered to a home and unspecified number of feline companions.
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