Hello all!
I am looking for help : I want to keep ND goats and my village of Justice told me " no farm animals allowed" I live 7 miles away from Chicago where they are legal to keep! I read the village code and did not find a line where they prohibit the keeping of goats only 2 sections prohibited keeping animals for slaughterer or breeding. Is anybody in a similar situation, or lives not far away from me or has any advice ? Thank you !
Replies
Nigerians are not wild or exotic, so they do not fall under this law. They are a domesticated goat. Potbellied pigs are also not an exotic animal, nor are chickens, so they don't fall under this law either. Yes, these animals are "from" another country, (potbellied pigs originated as pets in Asian countries, and Nigerians are "from" Nigeria) but they are not exotic. They are not found first as a wild animal that someone has kept as a pet, or bred with a pet to create a new species, which is the kind of animal that the law you are reading is talking about.
Viktorija Baleckaitis said:
oh, Glen you are the savior then :) I did find a regulation I overlooked before because My husband interpreted wrongly before: "It shall be unlawful to keep, harbor, own or in any way possess within the corporate limits of the Village:
(1) Any warm-blooded, carnivorous or omnivorous, wild or exotic animal (including but not limited to nonhuman primates, raccoons, skunks, foxes and wild and exotic cats; but excluding fowl, ferrets and small rodents of varieties used for laboratory purposes)."
I think the village might use this code as a reference to deny me the right to keep A ND goat. But that would mean pot bellied pigs and chickens are prohibited too because they would fall under the above rule, except they are allowed as the code enforcement officer suggested. So then I could maybe p[petition to have ND goat
looked at as a pet? would that be very hard to do>?
Glenna is a great resource for you, Viktorija! She helped shape the laws in her area, and understands the meaning behind a lot of the wording in regulations surrounding goat ownership in cities.
Technically, now ND goats *are* pets because they are so commonly purchased and sold as pets rather than breeding animals such as pigs or sheep. All of my kids have gone to pet homes with no intention of ever being bred.
Regarding the no breeding phrase, that is breeding on site. It is not meant that a milking doe cannot be on the property as long as she is not bred on the property nor is she bred for the purpose of producing kids to be sold. The same is true of hens. You can have hens set on fertile eggs to hatch as long as your purpose is not selling the chicks as chicks or adults. When you do either, it is a business not a pet home.
When our code was written, it was acknowledged to have a milk goat would mean the birth of kids which would have to be sold but are considered "incidental" as long as the purpose was *not* to produce kids to sell. In other words, if I were to breed my does and not milk and sold kids, I would be in violation as my purpose would not be the milk from my doe. Does that make sense?
The link I referred to elsewhere is here at: http://nigeriandwarfgoats.ning.com/forum/topics/new-member-requesti...
Note there was an error in the orginal post regarding size; it was reversed: We sent it 1/2 acre and it kept coming back 1/4 acre before we took size out completely and used numbers as in Portland.
hwinnum
Pet Animal Law & Legal Definition According to 9 CFR 1.1 [Title 9 -- Animals and Animal Products; Chapter I -- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture], pet animal means “any animal that has commonly been kept as a pet in family households in the U.S., such as dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and hamsters. This term excludes exotic animals and wild animals.†Common Household Pet Law & Legal Definition “For purposes of Housing programs: A domesticated animal, such as a dog, cat, bird, rodent (including a rabbit), fish, or turtle, that is traditionally kept in the home for pleasure rather than for commercial purposes
BUT
Typically, regulations etc on the keeping of pets is a local issue, so your city will have a legal definition of what does or does not constitute a pet. The only time there is a legal definition of something is when that something appears in some law. Each law defines its terms internally, meaning the definition of 'pet' in an animal control bylaw might be different from that used in a zoning bylaw. For that matter, there may be no law which even uses the word.
Yes, that I did, Deborah and that's the thing, it does not say anything about what farm animals prohibited or allowed in the code, only that I could not slaughter or breed them, o create a nuisance. So I keep 2 of them as pets:) Rachel, very good point: they are my pets but how do I prove and how do they qualify as pets? there is no definition of a pet in the code wither.
also
Ask to see the village code. Like Rachel said, there might be a loophole. Most village codes are also online now, so you might try Google.
If you are wanting to keep goats for milk, then they would technically fall under the prohibited animals for breeding, because you will have to breed to get milk. If you are only wanting NDG for pets, then they wouldn't fall under either category, and may be an exception. It's entirely possible that the person you spoke to doesn't know the laws as well as they think they do. When I lived in a city, the city's laws stated "with the exception of pets" no farm animals or livestock were allowed. Well, at that time, my chickens were my pets, and so I decided to keep them, even though the gal at the court house said they weren't legal. I would have argued, should I have been confronted about the chickens, that I was keeping them as pets, and housing them in a similar fashion (I used a chicken tractor to house them) the same as people did to keep rabbits as pets. Now we live in the country, and all that is in the past for me, but I thought I'd give you an example of how my mind works. :)
On the other hand... with wording as vague as what you have mentioned, keeping even dogs for show, and then breeding to sell offspring would not be *technically* allowed. So you might try to dig deeper into whether there are permits issued for such people, and if you might qualify.
If all else fails, you might try changing the laws in your area!