Help with an accusatory neighbour

Hello all,

I'd like some advice please.

I have a problem with a someone in my neighborhood falsely accusing us of mistreating our dogs.

For the last year or so, we've been receiving anonymous letters through the post accusing us of never walking or letting our dogs out.

This is not true, I walk our dogs twice a day, 7 days a week at the local park but this neighbour seems to refuse this fact.

I don't know if it's because I don't walk them round the neighbourhood or they can't see me take them in the car (How they can know for sure without staking out the house 24 / 7 I don't know).

We have 2 dogs, our littlest dog "Jessie" is quite nervous and at the moment, she is point blank refusing to walk around the neighbourhood, otherwise I would. She will get half way down our street and when she realises we aren't going in the car, she'll panic and pull out of her collar and run back to the house.

She'll only walk in the local park but how do I convey to this anonymous person that they do in fact get two good walks a day and they are both fit and well looked after?

Sorry for rambling but it's starting to do my head in now and I'm not sure what to do about it.

As long as you know you're walking your dogs and they are healthy and happy then just ignore the letters! Some people have nothing better to do with their lives than get involved in other peoples business without knowing the full story.. It's probably someone who doesnt get out of bed until 10am every morning!!

I'm out with my dogs every single morning at 6am come rain or shine, light or dark mornings... I rarely see any of my neighbours at that time in the morning so they could think the same as your neighbour! and i couldnt give a monkeys..

I'd be more concerned about seeing an emaciated dog or an abused dog rather than one that doesnt get out much on my watch!!

Just ignore them, the RSPCA or similar aren't going to be interested in someones complaint that their neighbour doesn't walk their dogs enough.

The RSPCA's general stance is: "If the animal has access to food and water, isn't being beaten then there's nothing they can do"

Stick a CCTV camera over your door and figure out who's posting you nasty notes, chances are it's the local busybody/curtain twitcher - you probably know them already.

hard to do, but just ignore them - for reasons best known to themselves (or simply because they don't like themselves very much) you have become their focus

In my experience these people lose interest if nothing happens

If it is unsettling (I can imagine it might be) you could set up a movement activated webcam on your door - there is free software online to turn any webcam into movement activated, I use it to see what our GSD is up to when I am working in the attic (he mostly goes in the kitchen bin!)

Hope you get it sorted

Ignore them.......some years ago we had the same sort of thing including a visit from the RSPCA because someone claimed my mum's dog who used to lie on the back of the sofa in the window was 'stuck' to the window. These people seem to have nothing better to do than to harass others who are just getting on with their lives.

I learned many years ago that things are not necessarily how they appear. I saw a painfully thin and apparently blind cat in our street who was just lying on the pavement for hour after hour and worried about whether I should do something. I was young and didn't know my new neighbours well at that point and called the RSPCA, who informed me that they knew where this cat lived, and that she was 25 years old and sleeping on the pavement because it was nice and warm, outside her own house and that I should speak to my neighbours before calling them in future.

I'm grateful that they did tell me to buzz off because it taught me a lot of things. You have no idea whether the 'sick dog' that you've seen is currently being treated by a vet, or is old, injured or has a neurological condition that means that they look sick when they aren't.

As I'm being charitable, I'll choose to believe that your neighbour just needs to learn things like I did. Once you work out who it is that is sending you these letters I hope that you can step back enough to consider that they may be unaware of your good care, rather than actually malicious.

Either way round, you know that you're caring well for your dogs and therefore have nothing to fear from a visit by the RSPCA or the council, apart from their time being wasted. If you take your animals to the vets if they are sick and feed, water, exercise and provide them with a stimulating and safe environment then really, you have nothing to fear. You certainly have nothing to prove to this person.

I would do as others have suggested, get a camera up and see if you can find out who this is. Sure,y they could be reported for harassment?

Yes, but you would need some kind of evidence first or the police will tell you to stop wasting their time.

The RSPCA's general stance is: "If the animal has access to food and water, isn't being beaten then there's nothing they can do"

This isn't their 'stance', they can only act within the law and the law only covers the basics of an animal's needs. If they are met, there's nothing the RSPCA can legally do other than offer advice.

If the letters are hand delivered, if it was me I'd pin a note on my door to explain the truth of the situation and invite them to speak to me in person.

After that I'd just ignore it.

Their stance is in line with the current law, and that is the current law.

So that is their stance :razz::razz:

Personally I think if the OP knows they are taking good care of their pets they shouldn't have to explain themselves to any nosey neighbour.

My next door neighbours don't take their dogs out for walks, they only get let out in the garden. Although I don't agree with this (we had a dog when I was still living at home and I would take him out every afternoon and my mum every morning) I wouldn't report it to the RSPCA as I wouldn't have thought it was neglect. They seem to get fed (don't look thin or ill) and get their hair clipped so would have thought the neighbours take reasonable care of them.

This neighbour could be deliberatively being a nuisance which of course is annoying or is genuinely concerned. No organisation gets it right all the time and they maybe genuinely worried that the RSPCA have got it wrong.

There is part of me that is tempted to suggest that you stick a banner in your window telling them at you walk your dogs. Or just ignore the letters, they might get bored eventually.

If it was me i'd draft a letter with the name of my solicitor on it and pop it in the neighbours doors emphasising you'll take the matter to the police for harrassment.

One way or another it'll get a resolution.

I did the same thing with my neighbours some 10 years ago - a different issue but upsetting and slanderous, it stopped we resolved our differences and continue as good neighbours these days.

One of my daughters neighbours is about to report her neighbour to the RSPCA for leaving the dog outside every day. I've told them to mind their own business or offer to walk the dog.