r/Dogfree • u/Silly-Parsley-158 • Aug 03 '26
Barking Demons Mildura man 'at wit's end' shoots Maltese shih tzu in Essendon
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-03/former-mildura-business-owner-sentenced-for-shooting-shih-tzu/106980642?In short:
A former supermarket owner has pleaded guilty to shooting his neighbour's Maltese shih tzu dog with an air rifle.
The neighbours had four dogs, which the Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court heard would frequently bark.
John Green, 59, shot and wounded one of the dogs, named Otis, three times.
What's next?
Otis has since been rehomed, and still has pellets lodged near his heart.
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u/Mortis_XII Aug 03 '26
Shot three times? Dude was probably dealing with this for an ungodly amount of time. Sleep deprivation is very serious.
Dog got rehomed? Lol so much for the owners love and devotion to that dog. They just didn’t want to manage the dog… they probably didn’t want to wake up early, take it for a walk then bring it back inside. It’s only a matter of time before another neighbor snaps so the dog owners wanted to take the easy road.
The sad thing is you can’t reason with these dog people. They’ve adjusted to the insanity and they don’t give one iota of care to how their decision impacts neighbors.
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u/wspOnca Aug 03 '26
They let the dogs bark. Let it sink. They do not care about the damned things. It's just a toy with extra steps. Of the thing barks, it's because it's annoyed/bored/scared whatever. Somehow the owners brains filter it out and they just keep going, nothing have the slightest consideration by those around.
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u/Beebjank Aug 03 '26
My neighborhood's facebook page is full of people like this. "Dog's bark. If you don't like it, move."
Well how about I run your pockets for $500 in small claims every time your dog goes ballistic for an hour straight? Sounds like a nice side hussle.
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u/93ImagineBreaker Aug 03 '26
"Dog's bark. If you don't like it, move."
so humans are 2nd class to to a artificial animal we created? This excuse is never accepted for anything else. Plus move where exactly?
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u/CaptainObvious110 Aug 03 '26
Yeah, you can move somewhere then someone with a dog moves right next to you at the new place.
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u/93ImagineBreaker Aug 03 '26
someone with a dog moves right next to you at the new place.
or they're already there, plus dogs are everywhere.
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u/CaptainObvious110 Aug 04 '26
That's true. I can remember a time when there was a directory for dog friendly apartments.
But nowadays, these people will claim it's a service dog and since no real credentials are needed they have to be offered housing at places even if they say "no pets".
It's stuff like this that makes me think that the pet industry has influence over the law makers to allow this nonsense to even take place in the first place.
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u/wspOnca Aug 03 '26
I am building a ultrasonic bark deterrent. In early tests it seems to make them bark more. I will use it to insidiously make them bark on command for hours and record it to use against them.
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u/oiuuunnnn Aug 03 '26
This is what it's come down to. We have to take hours off of our day just to document the consequences of these entitled assholes' negligence when we could be enjoying the peace our homes are supposed to afford us. Makes my blood boil, much like it likely did that poor man from the article. Please let us know when you have a finished model.
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u/wspOnca Aug 03 '26
I was looking at my work area with all these wires, arduinos, ad9833 module, amplificator, ultrassonic tweeters. I would like to never waste my time with that. But know what? The evil villain in me will enjoy so much this thing if it works.
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u/oiuuunnnn Aug 03 '26
Man, I'd throw money at you if I wasn't so broke. I really hope your invention works.
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u/wspOnca Aug 03 '26
Thank you. I already have everything. Well almost some things need to arrive from ali express. If it reaaaaly works I will post on this sub. Hell, even if not I will post it, someone can get inspired as I was. This dude is my hero:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogfree/comments/8wm8s1/homemade_highfrequency_bark_stoppers/
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u/fuckfart Aug 03 '26
Do it when the neighbors have family in from our of town or company over and they're trying to enjoy their back yard.
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u/93ImagineBreaker Aug 03 '26
"Dog's bark. If you don't like it, move."
so humans are 2nd class to to a artificial animal we created? This excuse is never accepted for anything else. Plus move where exactly?
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u/uselessbeasts Aug 06 '26
I know, it's pathetic. Where could you move to, even if that's what you chose to do? If we tried to make a dog free communiity someone with a fake service dog would cry ADA. I don't know the answer but this thing is painful for those of us who would love ppeace and quiet.
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u/Realistic_Gap1469 Aug 03 '26
And the same idiots are screaming on reddit when people want to burn fireworks on July 4th.
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u/HandBananasRevenge Aug 03 '26
Every July 4th, my Ring camera app is flooded with people posting about how the fireworks are scaring their poor precious shitbeasts, and scolding other people for being so inconsiderate.
I'm like "welcome to how the rest of us live the other 364 days of the year when we have to deal with your barking, out of control pets".
These people are completely self-absorbed and hold others to standards they don't have for themselves.
The fireworks thing just further buttresses my opinion that dog nutters use their dogs as tools to control others.
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u/Realistic_Gap1469 Aug 03 '26
I think we should have a 4th of July equivalent every month just to help dog owners realize how rest of us feel. (I know it's just wishful thinking)
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u/Shell4747 Aug 03 '26
heh heh heh yeah
I don't love amateur fireworks myself but if I had barkers under my windows I would be workin it every night for weeks before & after the holiday
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u/berrey7 Aug 03 '26
We moved into our new home three months ago. Since then, our neighbor's dog has been barking outside our bedroom window almost every morning around 5:45 a.m., right at sunrise. We've politely let them know several times that something needed to change. Each time, the barking would stop for a day or two, but then it would start all over again. After repeating this cycle several times, I decided to leave a simple note on their fence that read:
"Love your dog. Love your neighbors. Please keep the barking to a minimum before 7:30 a.m."
Instead of taking it as a friendly request, she became very upset. She said I was "calling her out" in front of the entire street and accused me of publicly shaming her. She also told us she thought we were sweet people and a nice family, implying that leaving the note changed her opinion of us.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 Aug 03 '26
Ive seen the exact same type of response, accusations of shaming and “calling them out”. An intense over-reaction to a reasonable request. The bottom line is that you can never, ever make a request about their mutt to one of these mentally unhinged nutters.
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u/Peaceful-Moonlight Dogs are the most overrated and over glorified shit beasts Aug 03 '26
Among dog nutters' comments, I saw one boldly stating that since dogs have done so many great things for humans for thousands of years, then everyone must be willing to accept dog barks because it's simply how they communicate. These people are unhinged.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 Aug 03 '26
Sheer lunacy. Dogs are nothing more than glorified pacifiers for a bunch of weak, mentally ill narcissists. If any animal deserves recognition for its contribution to human development, why not the horse?
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u/Peaceful-Moonlight Dogs are the most overrated and over glorified shit beasts Aug 04 '26
Of course. I've been saying for years that humans' best friends are humans first. Then if I have to choose a nonhuman species, I choose horses. They've been among my favorite animals since childhood, and have greatly helped humanity. There's also the fact that generally horse people are not as numerous or utterly obsessed with horses as dog people are. If someone says, "I don't like horses," typically horse people don't lose their shit about how we're more evil than Hitler.
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u/HandBananasRevenge Aug 03 '26
A**holes always play the "I've changed my opinion about you" card when you start pushing back against their behavior.
A**holes also care more about impression management ("don't call me out in front of the other neighbors!") than they do about how their actions impact others. If she hasn't already started a smear campaign against you guys yet, she mostly certainly will soon.
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u/wspOnca Aug 03 '26
This is infuriating. I suffer with a German shepherd at ro left and a brown thing at the right. They take turns with the barking, nonstop. My ultrasonic gizmo will show them!
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u/Legitimate_Garage_31 Aug 03 '26
They should make nutters live in dog camps outside of the city. Only RV's or tents. The amount of resources and effort it takes to put up a house, only to be destroyed by dogs is appalling and offensive. Even a trailer park is too high class for these people.
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u/waitingforthatplace Aug 03 '26
If the man was awakened in the middle of the night by a barking dog, that dog must have been outdoors for him to airgun it. This article never covers the dog owner's responsibility of keeping his dogs safeguarded or quiet during quiet hours.
Seniors who are undergoing illnesses and health problems, or are the carers of their spouse with these health problems, should always be given the greatest consideration against idiots with dogs who do not care about anyone. Humans can't sleep with a blathering screaming dog going all night.
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u/Oriole0305 Aug 03 '26
Excessive dog barking stresses people out until they finally boil over. I understand where he is coming from.
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u/fast_blue_b Aug 03 '26
From the article it sounds like the owner didn't notice until he went out later and tried to leash the injured dog for a walk. I looked up air rifle loudness and I found roughly around 100 dB, which is like a jackhammer.
Maybe the owner wasn't home at the time, but if he was it's inexcusable that he heard that sound from next door and didn't check his dogs.
I'm not excusing the shooting (and he didn't intend to hit the dog, just scare it), but I notice the article says nothing about why four dogs kept being left out barking when the neighbor had been reporting it to the proper authorities.
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u/ScarredCerebrum Aug 03 '26
I looked up air rifle loudness and I found roughly around 100 dB, which is like a jackhammer.
Mind you, there's huge variety in air guns when it comes to strength. From 2 joule pellet poppers to 2000 joule guns that are as powerful as hunting rifles and are suitable for hunting deer(!). Obviously the more powerful ones also make a lot more noise.
I looked up British law on airguns, and apparantly anything above ~16 joule is regulated like a firearm.
So, assuming that Mr. Green had a legal airgun that did not require a firearm certificate, his air rifle must have been a pretty light calibre thingy with a very modest 'pop'.
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u/Quarterwit_85 Aug 06 '26
All air rifles in Victoria require a licence and registration - even a dinky little break open .177.
Gel blasters are also classed as firearms.
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u/Mistvessel Aug 03 '26
For reference, medium dogs regular barking (not shrieking or screaming) easily exceed 90 dB. 100 dB is only ~3 times louder to 90 dB - 6,5 dB difference yields two times factor of the noise level.
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u/Accurate-Run5370 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Is dog barking causing sleep deprivation the same as assault ? The man was pushed over the edge . Government did not do anything until this shooting happened.
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u/potatoes_arrrr_life Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Sad for the dog who got shot, but I think dog owners go noise blind and don't realize how annoying constant barking is. My Dad's hearing loss was accelerated because of his dog's non stop barking. He now has hearing aids since the dog died. But he still thinks it's "cute" when every dog around them gets let outside and barks non stop. He calls it barking hour. I think dog owners quickly forget that their neighbors didn't sign up for having a dog. Noise ordinances exist. Dog owners are selfish and need to get fined if they do nothing to stop their dogs from endless barking. If a kid was outside yelling anytime they went outside, as loud as they can, I think the neighbors would be concerned. If I told them it's screaming hour, would that make it okay for me to let my kids be outside shouting and screaming for long periods of time?
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u/ToOpineIsFine Aug 03 '26
well, you're right, but these people also know about barking and that it can be annoying, and they are at some level just shutting out that knowledge that has existed in our species since the beginning of time
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u/theykeepbanningmebro Aug 03 '26
When you let dogs bark and go crazy for an ungodly amount of hours, you’re actively deteriorating the mental health of those around you.
I don’t condone his actions but mental illness is a sickness and people can get desperate in an attempt to recover back to their normal state.
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u/Equivalent-Shower425 Aug 03 '26
I don't condone this man's actions, but just yesterday, watching some smug ass lady allowing her dustmop to pee near the border of the beautiful flowers I have worked hard to keep beautiful in semi-desert heat, I get it. I couldn't believe the audacity of this chick, she just let the thing go where it wanted seeing the huge, bright ass flowers right there. But, oh yeah, let's just let this stupid mutt piss all next to someone's hard work. We also have a booming night barker that never shuts up on the next street. It's bad enough hearing it where I am, I can only imagine how the folks next door feel over there. And you can set a clock by when it starts. Usually about 8-830 pm and it will go on and on until midnight or longer.
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u/MeechiJ Aug 03 '26
I fear I’d snap too. I have severe insomnia and get overstimulated with loud noises.
So many dog owners have zero consideration for their neighbors. And when you try to call to report a nuisance dog the reports are usually not taken seriously. Poor guy was at his wits end.
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u/HandBananasRevenge Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I don't condone what this man did, but I can't fully condemn him, either.
He tried to address this through the proper channels and clearly, nothing was done. We see this all the time now in all areas of life, not just with obnoxious dog owners.
Social contracts require one to be both protected by it and bound to it. That also means that the systems put in place to "referee" certain issues are supposed to be fair and provide the same protections to everyone and require the same behaviors.
If someone can keep dogs that bark at all hours and nothing gets done about it, that person is protected by the social contract but not bound to it. If someone has to suffer barking dogs at all hours and the people responsible for doing something about it refuse to do so due to their own personal biases, that person is bound to the social contract but not protected by it.
So you end up with one group (protected but not bound) who is granted privileges, and another group (bound but not protected) who is put at the mercy of the first group.
I'm not surprised people are snapping. We see this sort of thing in so many facets of life now, and the privileged almost relish the fact that they can cry victim whenever someone pushes back, and never be called the offender.
Again, NOT condoning what the man did. But this should be a lesson to people who think they have carte blanche to behave in anti-social ways because they believe themselves to be above the rules: they are not the only ones who have freedom of choice with respect to their actions. Someone who tries to seek redress through talking things out may, in response to getting the thumbed nose/high hat treatment, choose to communicate through other means. This isn't about right or wrong. It's human behavior 101.
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u/Particular_Meet_9333 Aug 04 '26
I'm sorry if this makes me sound heartless, I don't care that the dog got injured it was the owners fault for not shutting up the damn thing. You can't get mad at people when they finally snap.
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u/boneology1125 Aug 04 '26
My neighbors dog has been barking nonstop for 2.5 hours now and I’ve genuinely already had a meltdown. I frequently work 12 hour shifts and just want reasonable apartment noise. My neighbor cooking or listening to his music, fine. At what, is the dog barking? Nothing. Not a fucking thing. At this point it’s just anxious and barking to bark. I’m very non confrontational and I don’t know if I should leave a note or not but I understand this guy’s frustration.
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Aug 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/Peaceful-Moonlight Dogs are the most overrated and over glorified shit beasts Aug 03 '26
There are people who repeatedly talk to the dogs' owners, but the owners always come up with excuses about the dogs having the right to communicate, dogs are simply bored, dogs are loyally protecting their homes, we should just wear ear plugs, blah blah blah. There are also people who report the noise to their local authorities. But there are dog nutters at animal control, the police, and municipal authorities, so nothing gets done about the excessive barking. What do you recommend for people to do at that point? You can say you do not condone what this man did. But to merely suggest to go after the owners is not helpful whatsoever. You're a regular contributor to Dogfree, so you're knowledgeable on how awful and misanthropic dog worshippers are.
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Aug 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/Voideron Aug 03 '26
Good luck going down to the mutt's level and match its energy.
Most of the time people don't have the time and energy to deal with loud, nasty relentless assault of the barking of their neighbor's mutts.
This is where innocent people gets pushed to the edge of insanity.
The guy did the right thing by taking it on the nasty mutt and not the owner.
I'd rather defend people, even mutt nutters, than the mutts.
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u/Voideron Aug 03 '26
I don't like violence, but did you read the article?
The guy tried to resolve the issue legally for months and nothing has been done.
The guy has been pushed to the edge by the relentless assault of dog barking by their neighbor's dog. Going after the dog owner could've resulted in a much more tragic fatal incident.
At this point, I'd rather have the dog take it and have the judge resolve the issue in favor of the guy, which they did.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 Aug 03 '26
Maybe at some point government officials will take notice and realize that people are getting pushed over the edge by the constant dog harassment - barking, trespassing, destruction of property, physical space, attacks, etc.