To think this is animal neglect?

[SnufkinsSpiritAnimal]

We have a neighbour at the back, live in a pretty awful area, and are looking to move. It is a small double lined street of terraced cottages, mostly owned but becoming very depressed in the pas decade.

One guy moved in 6 yrs ago and seems to collect German Shepherds. Most of them vanish after a few yrs and are replaced. He is NOT doing foster work or anything like that!
He tends to lock them outside in an 8x8 foot concrete yard with a 5 foot wall for most of the day. The door is shut all day, but opened and left open all night until around 10am. There is one water bowl. Most of the yard is covered in shit.

We have seen him lock them out for over 7 hours, he stands behind the glass door with his hands on hips glaring at them. It makes no sense to me why someone with this much disrespect would keep having dogs.

He was repeatedly reported yrs ago and moved the shit.

Now, he always has two dogs, the house is tiny and they are not walked or socialised. No one has ever seen him take the dogs outdoors or to be walked. One will disappear, obviously died, then another will come a few months later.

They start off as beautiful dogs, quite relaxed, then become more and more agitated, with barking and howling through the night. He does not let them in, unless the door is open, but since he spends most nights away, they just run in and out of the dark house in distress.

We reported it to a German Shepherd charity, locally and nothing.
We reported it to the council, nothing.
No idea what to do.
Since the entire area is going to shit, none of our neighbours give a damn.
We are moving to a rural area in 4 months so that will be the end of it for us, but it makes me feel like shit to think he will carry on doing that.

Is there anything we can do?
We know a few people who love German Shepherds, which are extremely intelligent dogs, and they have tried to call places to get it checked but nothing works.

Have you contacted the rspca?

RSPCA .

In the early days, yes. They did come but said the animals were fed and had a roof.

Then film the dogs and present evidence of them howling and surrounded in crap.

The RSPCA won't (and can't) do anything if the dogs have access to water and shelter. They don't have anymore powers than you or I.

I would go down the road of making a noise complaint to the council and log it officially - videos, photos, timings etc. and get it solved that way.

The problem here is the noise, so people would only focus on that, as GS's have a very loud bark. We would have to record and produce evidence and since no other neighbour is interested I doubt we would pass muster.

In 2018 a few neighbours still bothered to try, and we approached every angle,, from the rats to the endless stream of shit in the back entry way where we have to move the bins.

Honestly, no one cares. I don't care about the barking, we can get away from it as we live in the front of the house mostly, but the treatment of those dogs over so many years is awful.

I can't imagine how their muscle tone and general health is, no wonder they die young.

Sorry, I forgot to add that a few of us reported it as a noise complaint in 2018. We kept notes and times, etc. As most of the noise occurs between 1-6am it did attract investigation. Unfortunately nothing happened.

We then reported a rat infestation as he keeps rubbish and piles of crap outside of his gate, piles of old furniture and sacks of food. Along with the unmoved dog shit.... but after a few weeks it all started again. We knew that the council wouldn't care if only one of us reported it, so we got the whole street to fill in forms.
Nothing came of it.
Now, nobody cares. They complain in the street but nothing changes.

No one is able to enjoy their outdoor space due to this, as the noise and stench of shit is overpowering.

My only interest at this stage is the life and death of those dogs. There have been so many over the years, and I strongly doubt they ever saw a vet. Looking at them, they appear to die quite young.

Here are your options:

Report it to the police, your local council's animal welfare department, or an animal welfare organization.

Get video evidence, photos, witness statements and keep a diary. Escalate to your local MP if nothing happens.

Thanks, username.
I would definitely like to try something before we move. It is easy to think 'sod it' but we know it will carry on long after we are gone as nobody cares.

The council here are more than useless, generally. But I will look into more charity places and organisations. It just feels so hard and pointless.

In some ways I think I did this AIBU to see if anyone else had witnessed anything like it. I am from a family of dog lovers and my DH's family breed german shepherds.
It feels so helpless, as if these people just control the lives of everyone around them, and never face consequences.

I could film them from the window, as they run in and out in the dark whimpering. I could film him locking them out and shouting at them, but I doubt at this point if it would help:(

i' have seen him screaming at them, but no evidence of hands-on physical abuse.