Neighbours driven mad by barking dog for 11 YEARS – as judge orders owner to give up their pet

A JUDGE ordered a dog be removed after its incessant barking drove neighbours mad for more than a decade.

The frustrated neighbour was forced to drag the noisy dog’s owner to court after attempts to shush it fell on deaf ears.

reports Shane Shannon said he believed Geraldine O’Loughlin’s “German Shepherd-like dog” is “lonely and not cared for”.

He claimed the pooch was confined to the woman’s garden in Ennis, , Ireland, adding he had never seen it leave the yard or welcomed into the house.

Mr Shannon said: “To be honest it is immensely upsetting to listen to an animal like that.

“He is fed twice a day when food is thrown out the back door to him. I never hear anyone playing with the dog or saying hello to the dog.”

Mr Shannon also said he has no idea what the hound’s name is, despite living close by for 11 years.

He added the dog “has been barking for as long as I have been there, and that’s 11 years”.

And the dog’s barks would last for hours at a time, he said.

Mr Shannon said he had asked Ms O’Loughlin to quiet the distressed dog but “laughed into my face”.

He said he told her that barking is “what dogs do”.

Judge Mary Larkin ordered that Ms O’Loughlin deliver the animal to the dog warden under the Control of Dogs Act 1986 as it is an “unwanted dog”.

The judgement was made despite Ms O’Loughlin emailing the court prior to the hearing insisting the dog had been put down, as Mr Shannon expressed he feared it could not be established if this was the case.