How to respond to my neighbours snotty letter?

[Cloudygreydaysahead]

They got a puppy at the start of lockdown. The poor thing is out in the garden alone in all weathers with only a towel and some water until recently when they made a small kennel. It cries all hours of the day from 6-7am onwards. Our main concern is the puppies welfare as it’s clearly distressed. My husband went round the other morning as we wanted to be upfront and just asked to make sure they didn’t leave the dog out for extended periods of time and it is waking us and our children up. They apologised then this morning we received this. They clearly like letters as they also wrote us an anonymous letter about some of our recycling blowing onto the street but we have ring doorbell and saw it was them!
What do I do from here? Leave it? Reply via a letter seen as that’s the way he likes to speak clearly?

It's difficult to read but has the letter note answered all your concerns?

Not at all. I’m not sure why it’s blurry I’ll try again.

Not sure if this is any better

Maybe this..

Are they saying they have an active life and take the dog out a lot ?

They don’t take the poor thing anywhere other than the back garden! x

Wow, that's nutty. I wouldnt bother replying, they have too much time on their hands. They have asked you for evidence that dog is barking excessively which you can provide by recording it if you want to. Was your dh concern to them the welfare of the puppy or the barking waking you up. Does your cat poo in their garden, you should stop that really.

I’d probably write back and suggest putting the dog in day care as it’s really unfair for it to be in its own all day and is obviously getting separation anxiety.

Our cat goes out but she mainly uses her litter tray. There are several cats in the street that are always in our garden so I’m not sure why they are targeting our cat, just an excuse to have a dig I think. We also lost our dog 9 months ago so he’s clearly racking his brains to have things to bring up. He just said we were concerned about the dog being let out for long periods of time including in the morning, which wakes us up.

I have recordings of it barking and crying as I thought it would be sensible to keep a record.

Please tell them if they dont take better care of the pup you will report to the dogs trust or suchlike. Film them if necessary.

Holy crap they’re absolutely mental!
I’d take that to say they have no interest in doing the best they can by the dog or their neighbors. Their only aim is to stay within the letter of the law.
I’m afraid I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere having a conversation with them.
Perhaps take a look at the rspca website and the guidance they have for dog welfare and record if true it behaviour falls short? Then you could report them.
If the issue is noise then I’m afraid you need to either ignore and hope for he best or record and be a pedantic arsehole back at them.
Good luck. They sound mad as a box of frogs.

I only got half way through the first paragraph but I can tell you your neighbours are grade A twats!

Report them to rspca and Council noise complaints if they are leaving the poor thing out all day crying.

It's not fair for a puppy to be left all day. Is it outside all day when they are out. If so they wont know how much it barks so maybe you could record that if you're concerned about its welfare. Maybe it needs a dog Walker visit or doggy daycare. Their letter only waffled on about permitted noise levels and not the welfare of the puppy. It's like an attempt to blind you with science letter with no actual substance.

Don’t respond to that. Those letters are clearly their hobby. Don’t give them the pleasure. Just report.

I couldn't be arsed to read it all, but what I did read makes them sound like they are nutters. Letting the dog out in guidance to legislation wtf!

In your shoes I'd ignore the letter, keep a diary on when the dog is left out and keep noise recordings. Then speak to environmental health to the noise and the rspca re the dogs welfare

It's not at all fair on the pup. But if it has food, water, shelter and not being physically abused, there isn't much legal ground for a welfare case, sadly

I agree with a couple of other replies.
Would ignore letter and contact animal welfare, it's ridiculous why folks like them think a dog is a suitable pet.

My sympathies, my neighbour likes to write letters like that. Poor puppy

Have you a local fb page? Take pics, post them and shame them. Animal abusers...
Rspca, council and dog's Trust if maybe it came from there...

They are totally bonkers, wtf!!!

Ignore the letter, report them to the council and RSPCA. Film the puppy if you can.

Report to RSPCA

Pure nobheads. God love you living next to that pair!

Thank you all so much. I’m going through a hard time mentally on a personal level at the moment and I was doubting myself thinking is it us being unreasonable! I’ve got some recordings over the past months, one being it outside crying on the hottest day so far. The noise is an annoyance don’t get me wrong but it’s the reason behind the noise; the dog in distress, that worries me. They’ve now hid the dog round the side of the house.. I’m guessing so we can’t get any footage.
I might state the abandonment of animals act 1960 to them! x

Half of the letter is complete gobbledygook.. to me the bottom line what I read is he’s bricking it in case we report them. We didn’t want to hence my husband speaking to their faces.. last time they wrote us an anonymous letter we said please don’t feel you have to do that again in future.. I like to think we are approachable!