Local News in Brief : Thousand Oaks’ Illegal Goose in ‘Exile;’ Owners to Sell House

The woman who was ordered by a judge to remove a 3 1/2-year-old goose from her Thousand Oaks home has moved to an undisclosed residence in San Marino, leaving her husband behind to sell their house, he said.

Ventura Superior Court Judge Robert Soares ruled in December that Vic and Carol Penun were keeping their pet goose, named Corky, illegally on their half-acre property in the Conejo Oaks section of Thousand Oaks in a case brought by a homeowners’ association. Deed restrictions for the housing development prohibit barnyard animals.

The Penuns said they planned to appeal that ruling and would seek a stay of execution to allow Corky to stay.

But, not knowing what form Corky’s eviction might take, the couple moved him over the weekend.

“Our current status is that Carol has taken Corky into exile,” Vic Penun said. “We didn’t want to risk the arrival of a marshal to remove our Corky. As far as we are concerned, we are going to keep him in this condition of exile until it is safe for him to return.”

In the meantime, Penun said, he plans to put the house up for sale, only a year after he and his wife bought it.

“We are planning to sell our home and leave Conejo Oaks, since we find it to be totally intolerable and an infringement of our inherent right to freely enjoy our private property,” he said.

However, Penun vowed to continue the legal battle against the Conejo Property Owners’ Assn., the organization which brought the case to court after one of its members complained about Corky.

Penun has accused the association of enforcing the deed restrictions selectively, since other homeowners, including some of the association’s board members, also keep forbidden animals, he said.

“I just know that sooner or later, I am going to prove in some way that this organization is illegal as hell,” Penun said. “I plan to see this through.”