Q. A neighbor has at least 10 or more hunting dogs that howl, scream, bark, whine and scratch intermittently 24 hours a day. Needless to say this affects our lives daily.

We have contacted the police, humane society and lawmakers over the past three years. The only thing that has changed is that the society made the owner get rid of several dogs so there would only be 10. (Puppies younger than 4 months don't count.)

We have been to court and the judge fines the owner a small fee and we go through the whole process again.

To make the situation more insane, the police no longer respond and now the humane society writes the owner a letter first. Then the second time, if you're lucky, the humane society will send an investigator and maybe they will cite the owner.

This still does not resolve the continuous barking problem. HELP!

A. Hawaiian Humane Society spokeswoman Jacque Smith acknowledged that there is no easy answer to your problem and it can be a common one.

She said the problem can be compounded because the barking may stop when an officer arrives; the dog owner claims the dog doesn't bark; the complainant claims that the dog barks nonstop.

A dog owner is in violation of Honolulu's animal nuisance law when the dog barks intermittently for 30 minutes or constantly for 10 minutes to the disturbance of others.

Under city ordinance, a pet owner is responsible for keeping his or her animals "in a manner which will not endanger or unreasonably interfere with the public health, welfare, safety, peace or comfortable enjoyment of life and property."

Smith said a complainant must be willing to testify that the barking disrupts his or her "peace or comfortable enjoyment of life."

She said the society responds this way: