Council Dog Fight : Pets: As they weigh raising the limit on canines per home, Santa Clarita officials debate whether noise or security is the critical issue.

Are barking dogs a curse or a blessing? Are they pet peeves--or just plain pets?

Well, it depends.

To some, barking dogs can pose one of society’s worst public nuisances, ranking right up there with car alarms that accidentally shriek in the night. On the other hand, barking dogs can provide security.

These weighty issues surfaced unexpectedly Tuesday night at a City Council meeting in Santa Clarita, which, according to FBI statistics released this week, boasts the nation’s second-lowest crime rate for cities with at least 100,000 in population.

What the council was considering was whether to allow four dogs per residence only on lots of at least one acre. The law currently allows up to three dogs in homes on properties of any size.

“I think we should be more aggressive about barking dog complaints,” Mayor Jill Klajic said. “Why not? Why don’t we do more?”

“Because,” Councilman George Pederson shot back, “there’s robberies, burglaries and people being killed out on the highway--that’s why.”

The speechmaking veered between formality and lighthearted banter. It was ignited, in part, by resident Allan Cameron, an animal-welfare advocate who urged the council to consider amending the city code to allow four dogs, not three, for all residences, regardless of lot size.

Cameron distributed copies of an Oxnard ordinance that allows four dogs per single-family residence without major code-enforcement problems, he said.

But city Planning Director Lynn Harris said, “We do have consistent complaints and code-enforcement problems with barking dogs in Santa Clarita.”

Councilman Carl Boyer pondered aloud an ordinance mandating “an anti-barking collar or something like that” and cracking down “on people who don’t clean up after their dogs.”

Councilwoman Jan Heidt said a residential complex behind the bookshop she owns in Newhall is plagued by a dog that barks “every day, all day long, while the owners are gone. I feel so sorry for the animal.”

For her part, Mayor Klajic complained of a neighbor who, she said, owns two dogs.

“Sometimes I can’t even go out in my back yard,” she said. “I don’t get to enjoy it very much. They don’t take very good care of their dogs.”

Pederson said: “The barking dog complaint is the biggest complaint you get in law enforcement, I think. You can ask the Sheriff’s Department, ‘What do we really do about barking dog complaints?’ And they’ll tell you, ‘Not a lot.’ It’s true that most barking dog complaints are caused by one dog, rather than multiple dogs.”

“They’re lonely!” someone shouted from the audience.

The council soon asked the city’s Planning Commission to return in 60 days with an amended code proposal that would require spaying and neutering when four dogs live at residences of an acre or more.

But in the end, laughter filled the council chambers when Councilman Boyer wisecracked: “We could make barking dogs a felony--and then we’d be the least safe city in the United States.”