A Court of Appeals in Oregon ordered a pair of dog breeders to operate them to cut their vocal chords, welcoming the neighbors' appeal against the continuous barking of the gigantic Tibetan mastiffs, a nuisance practice that began 15 years ago. The ruling, writes the Washington Post, is the latest development - for now - of a long legal war started in 2002 when Karen Szewc and John Updegaff began to raise Tibetan mastiffs, large furry dogs originally used to protect sheep, to Rouge River in Oregon. A couple of neighbors started shortly after complaining about the annoying barking of dogs barking without solution of continuity, especially when the 'owners' left the house or left for long journeys. Couple who presented the first complaint not against dogs but against their owners. Already in the 2004 and 2005 the couple of farmers was scolded by the county of Jackson, where they live, for having violated the local rules on the management of the breeding to allow their dogs, at the time only two, to "bark for a long time and often". The two defended themselves by supporting then, and still today, living on a property of just over one hectare and therefore theirs was not a simple house but a 'farm' to which the county rules do not apply. The county rejected their position and inflicted an initial fine of 400 dolari in addition to ordering them for the first time to silence the two dogs. Regardless of the decision of the local authorities and continuing to support running a farm, the Tibetan masters kept on going while the dogs had become six. In April, the 2015 were ordered to pay 238.000 dollars in damages to neighbors. Today the draconian but obligatory choice saw the refusal of the farmers to make alternative choices like using collars that - on the principle of Pavlov's dogs - emit non-lethal electric shocks every time the dogs bark. The animal rights accusations are inevitable. The intervention, explains the Post, provides for the termination of part or of all vocal cords to reduce the volume of barking or, in the most radical cases, to prevent them from barking.
