It is now legal to bark in Norway
| Curtis |
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 at 3:12 PM |
(I never realized this was an issue...)
OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian court has ruled that it is legal to bark in public even for human beings.
The case, which made national news on Tuesday, came up after police arrested a father of seven because he barked in public.
Trond S. Hansen, 57, was walking home from a dinner party in downtown Oslo with two of his children, ages nine and seven, in early May, according to the ruling.
Along the way the children quarreled and the youngest started crying. The father tried distract them by barking.
A witness who feared that a dog was mauling a child called police after looking out the window to find that it was actually a man barking, the ruling said.
Police arrested Hansen and charged him with disturbing the peace, public drunkenness and child neglect. They jailed him for the night and turned his children over to welfare authorities.
The Oslo preliminary court found no evidence of drunkenness, neglect or illegal barking.
"The court finds it proven that the defendant barked in a public place at night. The court, however, is in doubt that the barking was so loud that it disturbed the peace," the ruling said.
-- from the AP
