Fine payment ends Fickling neighborhood nuisance case, but will barking complaints stop?

A resident of Macon’s Ingleside neighborhood reached an agreement and paid a $106 fine Monday to settle a Municipal Court case after her dog rescue operation drew complaints from neighbors.

Kerri Hatcher Fickling pleaded guilty to a care and control citation that alleged dogs had been allowed to roam free, according to Macon Municipal Court. She had been set to appear in court for a hearing Tuesday morning.

The agreement doesn’t require Fickling to remove dogs from her property, according to the court.

More than a dozen neighbors showed up at a March hearing, wearing earplugs and “move it” buttons protesting Fickling’s Save Our Souls Rescue operation. They maintained that the dogs barked excessively at all hours of the night and that aggressive dogs had gotten loose. That hearing was postponed.

Reached for comment Monday, Fickling said two additional citations were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Fickling said she has a license to run a foster-based rescue organization and she places animals with eight to 10 local families for fostering until they’re adopted.

Besides her family pets, she said she keeps only a litter of puppies and one to two mother dogs at her home.

The dogs are kept inside an invisible fence and taken inside by 9 p.m. nightly, Fickling said.

She disputed neighbors’ contentions that the dogs are barking at night, any more than other dogs, and that they’re aggressive.

“They’ve never attacked anyone,” Fickling said.

Phil Comer, one of Fickling’s neighbors, said Monday, “We are delighted to finally have some admission that this is a problem.”

Comer said he and other Ingleside residents have kept a log of incidents — barking dogs, dogs running loose and dogs threatening neighbors — since 2015.

He said the neighbors are considering what other options they may have now that the Municipal Court case is over.

“I think it is going to take some additional measures,” he said.

This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Fine payment ends Fickling neighborhood nuisance case, but will barking complaints stop?."