ysam

The Rav of Holon, R. Avraham Yosef (sone of R. Ovadia z”l) states that it’s forbidden to own a dog because they inevitably bark – either at people, or they makes noise by barking even when confined. The barking causes distress to many people, sometimes very considerable distress. He cites the gemara that blames the barking of a dog for miscarriages, r”l, which inevetibly led to the loss of Yerushalayim.

Having grown up in a place where dogs were common, and having had a dog myself, this brought up an aspect that never occurred to me. But on reflection, I have neighbors with dogs in Ramat Beit Shemesh, and the barking (sometimes very aggressive barking) does occur at times and, it’s more than just annoying: I have seen children and even adults really scared by this. It’s also unpleasant when I knock on my neighbor’s door and their small dog barks at me. When they open the door, I have to stand back because this is intimidating, even thought they assure me that it’s ok because he’s harmless. In short, people are regularly pained significantly by barking, yet we have become accustomed in our culture to ignore the pain that this causes. Humans happen to be baalei chaim, so causing that pain amounts to tzar baalei chaim to us humans. This is relatively common, i.e., not something that happens rarely just to someone who is an istinis.