Animal lovers rally to charity’s aid after noise complaint about barking dogs

Assisi sanctuary in Conlig, close to Bangor, has operated for 25 years, specialising in the care and rehoming of dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs.

But the charity was hit by a bolt from the blue when a council investigation found the dogs at the site to be making too much noise in the early hours of the morning.

Assisi’s Anna Morton said: “It came as a shock, we’ve been there 25 years and there’s never been a complaint of any form.

“We were notified a while back that there had been a noise complaint which had been made to the council. The council were duty bound to investigate, which is what they did.

“We got notification from environmental health that the noise level was of an unacceptable level and that we needed to take necessary steps to mitigate that noise level.

“We felt the only way to immediately mitigate the noise levels was to have the dogs taken off site.”

To that end Assisi put out an appeal for foster carers to take the dogs in.

Anna said: “The plan is to get as many as we can into foster care and rent kennels for our dogs with behavioural issues so that we can continue to work with them.

“It also means we have capacity still to take dogs in with they’re surrendered or they come in as strays.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we can’t take dogs.

“We got a lot of calls people thinking we were closing up for good, that’s absolutely not the case.”

After putting out an appeal Assisi managed to reduce the number of dogs on site to 20, 12 of which can be taken into foster care, though eight dogs require a little bit more work on behavioural issues before then can be rehomed.

Anna said: “We’re blown away by the response. We are so grateful and want to thank everyone who has supported us. We’re very humbled and flattered that we’ve got that level of support in the community.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with support in terms of people coming forward to foster, but if people can’t offer to support by way of fostering, a small donation towards renting kennels would be hugely appreciated.”

Because the noise levels were observed to be at their peak around 5am, Assisi are seeking kennels in which to keep the dogs overnight away from the Conlig sanctuary.

Anna said: “The noise abatement order said that the noise levels were at their peak at around five o’clock to seven o’clock in the morning. Our staff are in at seven so obviously as soon as they arrive that’s when it calms down.”

To donate to Assisi go to www.assisi-ni.org/donation/

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