Gold Beach Community Club
Pets In The Community
Prepared by Cyrus Anderson
The Role of the GBCC Board of Trustees
Your Gold Beach Community Club (GBCC) Board of Trustees often receives concerns and complaints from members about pet activity in our neighborhood. They have included intimidating behavior by pets towards other peoples’ pets, or towards other persons themselves, excessive or aggressive barking, pets leaving fecal waste or other damage in neighbors’ yards, even predation of songbirds by cats. These concerns have come up in past years, but they seem to be increasing in frequency, and in some cases, severity of attacks on both animals and people. Your GBCC Board is legally tasked with helping manage the physical resources of our community for the mutual benefit of us all, including safety issues. These include the bus stop, the pool, clubhouse, and beach access areas, and the private property ownership Covenants we all accepted and are covered by when we bought our homes here. We likewise are subject to King County regulations with respect to property concerns, animal control, and public streets and road areas. But we have also a strong concern for building that inner sense of supportive and mutually benefitting community that helps make this such a special place to live. In the face of so many pressures of modern life and urban culture that seem to pull people apart, we want to help bring people together and strengthen our sense of living together in our Gold Beach community.
In applying that sense to our dealings with members’ needs and concerns, we don’t want to rely on legalistically applying rules and regulations unless it becomes a necessary last resort. Instead, we want to encourage members who experience conflict with each other to seek their own mutually agreed-upon and mutually beneficial solutions rather than polarizing conflict with some kind of imposed solution and often lingering animosity. We want to encourage mutual dialog, consensus-building, and compromise. We want to look for win-win solutions whenever possible. We try to work from a kind of Golden Rule approach. Do unto others… try to see situations through our neighbors’ eyes also, to feel what it is like to be in their shoes, and to feel how you would feel if you were them and in their situation. How would you want to be treated? What would you do? And what can you do about it? With these thoughts in mind, we offer suggestions below for dealing with pets’ behavior, and pet owners’ responsibilities.
Safety and Common Courtesy
Many of us in the Gold Beach community, and on the Board, are pet lovers and pet owners. We all want the very best for our pets, and we enjoy visiting with our neighbors and their pets when out in the neighborhood. But pets are only animals, and they do what animals do. It is the pet owner’s responsibility to insure that their animals do not infringe on other peoples’ personal or property rights, or their enjoyment of their own property, or their sense of personal safety in our neighborhood. Pet owners should consult the King County Animal Services web page for county rules with respect to pet management. Our own Gold Beach Protective Covenants Running With Land for all four subdivisions of Gold Beach allow ownership of certain pets (see Items 10 or 11), but also speak to activities on our own properties which “may be or may become annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood” (see Items 6 or 7). The Board interprets this in part as providing adequate and effective containment of your pets on your own property (fences, electronic barriers and collars, tethers, etc.), and not letting them on or off-leash onto someone else’s property unless you have that other property owner’s explicit permission.
Dog Control in the Neighborhood
Dogs especially, when they are off their owners’ property and moving around neighborhood community and public areas, should be leashed and personally monitored at all times by their owners or handlers, and not left unattended. Use appropriate restraint of your pet when there is an encounter with other pets or persons, and monitor them and remove pet waste in a timely manner if your pet defecates in someone else’s property or our community or public areas. If your pet does cause property damage or personal distress to someone else, promptly carry out any remedies necessary and offer to pay for damages if need be.
Excessive Barking
Dogs bark – it’s what they do. But when a neighbor’s dog’s excessive barking interferes with other members’ enjoyment of their own homes or yard, it has become “an annoyance or nuisance”. If your dog is accused of excessive barking either while you are at home or away, day or night, set up a recording device outside so you can know for yourself what your neighbor is hearing. Then take appropriate action to shield your neighbor from disturbances it might be causing.
If a member finds that concerns are being caused by a pet or dog or other animal that is not owned by another community member, then, if possible, determine who does own the animal and contact them with your concern, contact King County Animal Control if need be, and contact the Board so we may know your concern and what actions are being taken, or that the Board may need to pursue further.
Finally...
The Board hopes that by following these suggested guidelines – taking responsibility for our own pets’ behaviors and their impact on other peoples’ lives and property, appropriately containing, restraining, monitoring and cleaning up after our pets, offering to remedy damage, distress, or concern our pet might cause others, or offering to help a neighbor lovingly manage their pet, that we all can enjoy our own and each other’s pets to the fullest making our neighborhood truly a pet-friendly community to live and play in.
The Board invites our members to bring concerns to us, including those involving pets, and we welcome your feedback and comment on these suggested guidelines.