Four years of barking are about all a group of Tagish residents can handle.

That’s why six neighbours filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday, asking a judge to limit the property uses of a seventh neighbour.

The suit asks that Shelley Cuthbert be barred from keeping any dogs on her property – a parcel of land which abuts the properties of all six complainants.

Right now, says Graham Lang, the lawyer representing the complainants, there are 80 dogs at Cuthbert’s Tagish-based organization, Any Domesticated Animal Rescue and Boarding Kennels.

Lang says some of Cuthbert’s neighbours have been living with the noise since Cuthbert established her rescue centre there in 2012.

The properties are not huge, Lang says. They wouldn’t be more than the width of three lots in Riverdale. He says Cuthbert’s yard is fenced right up to her property line.

Lang says one of the complainants rents a cabin on his property, and the complainant’s operation has been damaged by dogs “going 24/7.”

Another complainant’s house is only 15 metres from the property line. Every time people come and go, the dogs start howling.

A third complainant built an extension on their home in an effort to increase the distance from Cuthbert’s dogs.

“The game here is reasonableness,” Lang told the Star today.

He says none of his clients have a personal problem with Cuthburt specifically, nor dogs in general, but the situation has become unbearable.

It was from the beginning, but Lang says the complainants didn’t think they could do anything because of the lack of zoning or local area plan in Tagish.

Not only that, Lang says, no one wanted to cause a hassle – that’s part of the reason people move to rural areas.

“Tagish is Tagish,” he says. “There’s a real history there of going along to get along.”

Lang points out though, that another reason people live in rural areas is for the peace and quiet.

He says the complainants simply want to figure out a way to make the neighbourhood work. They like dogs, but can no longer live beside 80 of them.

Lang says Cuthbert has not yet been served. He emailed her the details of the suit on Thursday. He is currently arranging to have her served directly.

In a separate canine-related case this fall, Cuthbert missed a court date because she said her dogs ate a hearing notice that had been thrown into her yard.

That focus of that suit (that complainant is also being represented by Lang) is a dog that was in Cuthbert’s care this past summer.

Emerald Gillespie said she placed her dog, Buddy, with Cuthbert while Gillespie tried to find the dog a new owner.

When Gillespie tried to get Buddy back, Cuthbert said the dog had been surrendered to her.

She later said Buddy had escaped during transit to a new owner in Alberta.

That trial was set to begin Monday, but has been postponed.

Lang says he has set a case management conference for the latest case for Nov. 29.

Cuthbert could not be reached for comment by press time this afternoon.