Irresponsible dog owners are plentiful but hard to catch

While I love Sharon Branigan's idea of fining dog owners for leaving their dog's poop around ("Let's harshly fine people who don't pick up after their dogs," July 26 T.O. Acorn), I have to say I haven't had any luck actually seeing anyone doing it. And it's a disgusting problem in my condo complex.

I can't take action because you never can catch them in the act.

There seems to have been an explosion of dog owners over the last few years and multiplying dog piles left around. And don't even get me started on the constant dog barking. They bark at anything, everything and nothing. And they do it in chainreaction.

One dog barks, another hears it and barks, etc. There's never any peace and quiet. Then, when you tell the dog owner, they think you're being cranky.

They, for all I can see, are deaf. The rest of us are having our nerves shattered.

The Thousand Oaks complaint procedure is a joke, and our quality life is going down the tubes. After much experience with both problems- - poop and barking- - I say "good luck" to anyone who can figure out a way to handle these issues.

Irresponsible dog owners who feel it's perfectly okay to infringe on the rest of the world outnumber the responsible ones by 1,000 to 1. Kathy Renfrow Thousand Oaks