Last chance for howling hounds
Operators piped classical music into the kennels in a bid to calm the Carbery Hunt hounds, housed at the Old Military Barrack Mill for 80 years.
But residents at the neighbouring Millcourt apartments claim the barking has persisted and is causing sleep deprivation.
They keep a ‘dog log’ record of the worst instances of barking, including Sunday, Jan 29, when ‘ongoing howling’ persisted through the night.
At Bandon District Court yesterday, sound engineer Niall Vaughan gave evidence of noise levels recorded at the kennels over a week-long period.
He recorded 39 instances of barking exceeding World Health Organisation guidelines for community noise (50 decibels) over seven days, five of which took place at night.
Diane Hallahan BL, acting on behalf of complainant, John Burke, a resident of Millcourt, said Mr Vaughan’s results were at variance to her clients’ reports from inside the apartment block, which is a sheltered housing scheme built by Cluid.
She said on the night of Tuesday, Feb 1, prior to Mr Vaughan’s recording, the hounds were howling for two hours from 3.30am. On Feb 4, she said, howling was “ongoing all night”.
Judge Aeneas McCarthy questioned whether it made sense to house the hounds in Bandon town but said the residents should have been aware the dogs were there.
“If it was a machine you could turn it off but in the case of animals that’s not possible,” he said.
Ray Boland BL, representing the Carbery Hunt, estimated the cost of moving premises at up to €70,000.
A number of measures had been implemented to minimise noise, including the removal of bitches in heat and the improvement was reflected in the sound engineer’s report, Mr Boland said.
“To acquire new land and start all over again, that is effectively outside the limited means of the hunt,” he said.
He said residents now seemed focused on the noise of the dogs above all else and proposed one final adjournment to allow for machines to be installed whereby a high-pitched tone will activate to silence the hounds if they bark excessively.
Judge McCarthy adjourned the case for three months until May 14 to allow to see if the machines will be successful.
“If not I’m afraid more drastic measures will have to be taken,” he said.
