Morgan Hill
– Five banished pet goats may return home if the City Council
decides to change the livestock regulations at tonight’s city
council meeting.
Morgan Hill – Five banished pet goats may return home if the City Council decides to change the livestock regulations at tonight’s city council meeting.
In response to many requests by the Diana Avenue friends and neighbors of Frank Dutra and his goats, Mayor Dennis Kennedy will ask his colleagues to give the matter another thought.
A front page story in The Times and The Dispatch about the animals’ plight brought many calls and letters to the paper and to City Hall.
Dutra – and others – questioned the ordinance that says up to five dogs of any size can occupy property of a quarter acre, but no more than two non-pet animals – goats, horses – can live on even much larger property in the city limits. Even then they must be more than 100 feet from nearby homes.
In September, he was forced to move the five goats, three horses and a mule, to a friend’s property near the Sacramento Delta.
Neighborhood children enjoyed the animals, visiting Dutra’s goats, often bringing them food.
Even though Dutra was never in compliance with the city’s ordinance – the property he rents has been inside the city limits since there were city limits (1906) the animals lived happily on seven acres at 815 Diana Ave. until someone complained and the city was forced to enforce the code.
Dutra said he was happy the council was going to take another look at the ordinance.
“I’ll be there,” Dutra said.
