City of Ann Arbor files lawsuit against dog owner after repeated complaints of barking

Sometimes the six dogs start barking at 4 a.m.; sometimes they start at 11 a.m. Sometimes the barking lasts for minutes; sometimes it lasts for hours.

Pasich said she's at her wits' end.

“It’s like a car with a loud boom box not just driving by, but parking in your driveway for 15 to 30 minutes, three to five times a day,” she said.

After three and a half years of Pasich and her neighbors on Revena Place calling police about the barking, the city has filed a lawsuit to order Celina Sinanyan, the dogs’ owner, to bring peace to the neighborhood.

“I feel like I’ve done all I can do,” Pasich said. “We hope we get favorable results with the lawsuit, but we’ve done so many things so far and haven’t gotten any results. Until we get the peace and quiet, we aren’t going to believe anything.”

Assistant City Attorney Kristen Larcom declined to comment on the case, but said the neighbors did the right thing by calling the police and making sure there was documentation of the nuisance. She said while the situation is extreme, the complaint is common.

“We get these complaints frequently,” Larcom said. “You can imagine, one of the most common complaints that we receive is barking dogs.”

The complaint states Sinanyan admitted her dogs have created a noise nuisance between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., which is a misdemeanor. The complaint also says the continuous barking during daytime hours creates a noise violation and is a public nuisance.

Per city ordinance, an animal-related noise nuisance is defined as noise “occurring frequently or for a continued duration, which annoys, endangers, injures or disturbs a person of normal sensibilities on premises other than that occupied by the owner of the animal.”

To abate the nuisance, the city is requesting that Sinanyan develop a plan that will "put an end to her dogs interfering with her neighbors' right to a reasonable amount of peace and quiet." The complaint also requests Sinanyan relinquish ownership of some or all of the dogs to lessen the likelihood of continued problems.

Pasich said she has called the police on many occasions, but “feels like a nut” for having to complain so much. Pasich said she doesn't like calling the police to deal with barking dogs, but sees no other options.

“It seems a shame to tie up a police (officer) because of loose and barking dogs, especially when it happens again and again,” Pasich said.

According to the complaint, police were called because of Sinanyan's dogs on 25 different occasions since January 2008. The calls came from seven different neighbors, and two citations were written - one for a noise violation and one for a dog running loose through the neighborhood without a leash.

The barking usually stops for a week or two after the police visit, then resumes, neighbors say.

Pasich, who now sleeps with earplugs, said the problems began when Sinanyan moved in next door three and a half years ago.

The complaint states Sinanyan has acted openly hostile toward her neighbors, who say Sinanyan mostly just won’t answer the door. She did not answer the door when a reporter made several attempts to contact her.

Cindy Waygren, Pasich’s other next-door neighbor, has similar complaints. She regularly loses sleep because her house in the only two-story home on the cul-de-sac. There is nothing between her bedroom window and the yard where the dogs are let out in the back yard.

The barking kept her up for so long one night last month that she had to leave work early due to exhaustion, Waygren said.

“It sounds like a humane society over there,” she said, adding the owner has showed “a complete and utter disrespect for everyone.”

Waygren said all the neighbors in the immediate vicinity are growing increasingly frustrated.

“It feels like it's coming to a head right now,” Waygren said. “When it’s midnight and there are six neighbors in the street figuring what to do, something’s wrong. She just really does not care. We live on a court, lived here for 20 years, and it has been a beautiful place to live until the last three years.”

Although the neighbors mostly see the dogs as a noise nuisance, one of the six regularly gets loose, they say. Waygren said it once snapped at a neighborhood boy, and Pasich said it snapped at a police officer who came over to investigate the barking.

Waygren said her family limits the use of their back yard because the dogs start barking immediately after someone steps out the back door.

“The time is right to get something done,” Pasich said. “In summer, people like to use their back yards and keep windows open, but you just can’t do that here.”

Tom Perkins is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.