Jury awards couple nearly $240K over neighbors' barking dogs
An Oregon jury has awarded nearly $240,000 to a Rogue River couple who said they had to listen to their neighbors’ dogs constant barking for over a decade.
Plaintiffs Dale and Debra Krein said in the Jackson County suit that John Updegraff and Karen Szewc began breeding Tibetan mastiffs in 2002. After that, the giant dogs began barking around 5 a.m. and continued all day, the Kreins contended. They said their neighbors did not attempt to keep the dogs quiet even after the two were cited more than a decade ago by county authorities for creating a nuisance, reports the Medford Mail Tribune.
Updegraff and Szewc said they needed the dogs to keep livestock safe from predators.
In addition to the damages awarded on April 2, the Kreins had sought a court order preventing their neighbors from having dogs at the home.
A judge declined to issue that order, following a Thursday hearing, but said the defendants must either have operations performed on all of the dogs to prevent them from barking or find another home for them within 60 days, the newspaper reports.
Hat tip: Associated Press
