Ongoing Issues With Neighbors Dog. Tried Multiple Ways To Resolve But Nothing Works. Is It Time To Take Them To Court?

Location: North Carolina:

We have been having an ongoing issue with our neighbors about their dog. The issue has been going on for months and we are completely tired of dealing with it.

I have made multiple posts here on the homeower's forum and under the NFH forum about this issue:

Neighbor's Dog Part I

Neighbor's Dog - Part II

Neighbor's Dog - Part III

The dog repeatedly comes into our yard and runs around like a circus clown. He is not vicious and he doesn't seem to be a threat and he's more of a nuisance than anything but the fact still remains that we don't want him in our yard running like mad through freshly laid grass seed and newly planted flowers, etc.

Fences are not allowed per HOA rules so that is not an option. We have tried to speak to the neighbors about it but they just make excuses, deflect, and try to gaslight us and lately they have become nasty and accused us of harassing them because we keep reporting them to Animal Control.

Each time Animal Control comes out, they give them a citation but eventually the dog ends up in our yard again. We installed cameras to record the incidents but it has not helped. The only thing that's changed is that now we have footage of the dog in our yard but no solution.

Fast forward to this past Friday and I hear my husband outside having a heated conversion with the guy next door. The dog had ran out of their house and into our yard, approached my husband and started running frantically through our yard again. The neighbors tried to call the dog back but he ignored them like he usually does. He ran back and forth across the street, into another neighbors yard, then back to his own yard before the owner picked him up and carried him back inside.

My husband thought that they should at least apologize for the dog coming into our yard again but they were very nasty and rude. They accused us of reporting them to the HOA multiple times in addition to reporting them to Animal Control. The guy said that he had a "source" on the HOA board who told him that we were the ones who reported them to HOA multiples times. We've only contacted the HOA once last year when all this started and they basically told us that they couldn't help us because it was a civil matter and suggested we call Animal Control or police. We have not contacted the HOA since. Either the neighbor is lying or there is someone else in the neighborhood reporting them to HOA.

We are beyond fed up at this point and reporting to Animal Control seems to be getting us nowhere. Perhaps Animal Control is limited to what action they will take because the dog is not vicious and/or hasn't attacked?

It seems like these people have no intention to fix this situation and in fact have become nasty and have turned themselves into victims of harassment. What are our options? We would hate to call the police for a non-vicious dog issue. Is it time to contact a lawyer?

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.