Violating Suburban Code : Judge Orders Goose Must Be Given Gate

A Ventura County judge has ruled that Corky the goose cannot continue residence in a tract of half-acre homes in Thousand Oaks, and should be sent away to live with other geese, even though his owners contend he thinks he is human.

Corky is the 3 1/2-year-old French Toulouse goose that was raised from birth by Carol Penun and thinks she is his mother, or his mate, depending on his mood.

Carol and her real mate, Vic Penun, brought Corky with them about a year ago when they bought a home in the fashionably rustic Conejo Oaks area.

Neighbor Complained

But their happy menage was disturbed last year when an unidentified neighbor complained about Corky to the Conejo Oaks Property Owners Assn., which enforces the rules of the 30-year-old development.

Those rules are set down in the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, or CC&Rs; for short, an arcane-sounding, but serious enough document recorded with the Ventura County recorder.

Among other things, the CC&Rs; restrict the kinds of animals homeowners can keep. Dogs and cats are OK. Horses require permits. Barnyard animals are prohibited. As should now be apparent, a goose is a barnyard animal.

The Penuns apparently knew when they moved in, or at least should have known, that Corky could be construed as an outlaw.

But they said they thought those rules were no longer in force. They reached that conclusion, they said, by observing several other prohibited animals, such as ducks and lambs, living peacefully in other houses of the tract.

They figured they would go by City Code, which designates the area as a horse-keeping district and makes no restriction on animals of the barnyard variety.

What the Penuns didn’t figure on was the fact that the Conejo Oaks Property Owners Assn. doesn’t enforce the rules all the time. It just does so when someone complains, as someone did about Corky.

Compassion Plea

Although the reason for the complaint has not been publicly stated, the response was swift and forceful. When the Penuns refused to remove the goose, the association hauled them into court.

There, the Penuns argued before Judge Robert Soares that the association had let CC&Rs; lapse by not enforcing them against other property owners.

And, in case that didn’t work, they pleaded for compassion. Corky could not survive as a goose, they said, because he no longer is one. Through one of the laws of nature, called “imprinting,” Corky has become a human, at least in his own mind, they claimed.

“He thinks he’s a people person,” Carol, holder of a degree in zoology, said.

However, in a tentative decision handed down last week, Soares stuck to the laws of man:

“The defendants, by their own admission, are violating the Declaration of Restrictions by maintaining the ‘Goose’ on their property,” the judge said. “The defendants accepted their deed subject to all of the restrictions, including the one which prohibits the keeping of their ‘Goose.’ ”

In a few days, Soares will issue a permanent injunction requiring Corky’s removal.

The Penuns were mortified but not defeated, they said.

‘Not Unexpected’

“It’s not unexpected,” Vic Penun said. “We were anticipating the decision to go against us. Soares was obviously unfamiliar with the Mother Goose stories . . .. We felt his knowledge of the goose as a pet was very limited and actually primitive.”

The Penuns plan to appeal the decision.

They hope to be able to keep Corky with them during the appeal by asking the court for a stay of execution.

“It sounds very ominous, but that’s what they call it,” Penun said.

And, just in case the Court of Appeal proves as strict in its interpretation as Soares, they are also pressing a flank attack.

Over the past few weeks they have been going about the neighborhood soliciting signatures on a document that they described as an amendment to the CC&Rs.; They said they had obtained the signatures of 64% of the homeowners in the tract and have recorded the amendment with the Ventura County Recorder.

“As of now, the deed restrictions have been revised by majority vote,” Vic Penun said. “We are now reverting solely to city zoning.”

Since history has shown that the Conejo Oaks Property Owners Assn. can play that game too, the story of Corky the goose may be around a while.