Locking Horns : Herd a Good Joke? Not Nowadays in Tujunga; It’s a Fighting Word

Pat Koehler has a hobby that has gotten some peoples’ goats.

Koehler, 58, and her husband, Fred, 64, breed and care for Nubian goats at her Tujunga residence. Several of the 19 goats she now houses on her 1 1/2-acre property have won champion ribbons at fairs. The milk from one of the goats, she said, is considered to be among the best Nubian goat milk in the Western United States.

But several Tujunga residents are taking the issue by the horns, maintaining that odors and noise from goats and sheep in the area are threatening their quiet rural neighborhoods, which are zoned for the keeping of horses and other animals.

They also fear that there are not enough restrictions to govern the number of goats or sheep a family can keep on its property. They say the city codes are vague enough to allow families to raise whole herds and start commercial operations. A few of Koehler’s opponents say she has had as many as 45 goats on her property, a charge she denies.

No Limit Now

There is no limit now on the number of goats or sheep a person can have in a residential-agricultural area or an area zoned for animals.

The dispute between the goat people and the non-goat people has been going on for about five years, and has escalated in recent months into an emotional community battle.

Both sides have traded charges at meetings and in letters to city officials. The two sides also lashed out at each other during a Los Angeles Planning Commission hearing last week on a proposal to govern the keeping of goats and sheep.

“This issue has divided the community, and we’re trying our best to try and stop the war,” said Arline DeSanctis, Sunland-Tujunga field deputy for Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the area.

“It’s very heated. The goat people feel they’re being forced out, and the non-goat people feel that there aren’t enough laws to protect them from being overrun,” she said.

Los Angeles city regulations stipulate that a structure for animals must be at least 75 feet away from the habitable rooms of a neighbor’s house.

A proposed ordinance, which had been approved by the city Animal Regulation Department, says that a structure for goats and sheep can be closer than 75 feet from a neighbor’s house, but no closer than 35 feet, under certain conditions.

The conditions of the ordinance pertain to goats which have not been castrated or de-scented, the two primary causes of goat odor. The Koehlers said they castrate their bucks and de-scent them by removing the scent glands from their heads.

When the ordinance came before the planning commission last week, Koehler said she felt it was fair. But Sylvia Gross, vice president of the Sunland Tujunga Assn. of Residents, was not satisfied. She said that a 50-foot limit should be imposed. Also, she said, there should be a limit of seven goats on a residential property: three sheep or goats on the first 4,000 square feet of land and one sheep or goat on each additional 4,000 square feet of land.

There were also no guidelines on how long a kid could be kept after it was born, Gross complained.

A more detailed ordinance will be brought before the planning commission in three months, said DeSanctis. The ordinance may also contain some guidelines on limiting the number of goats.

“We see now that there were some gaping holes in the ordinance, and after we approved it, we were inundated with phone calls,” said Robert Rush, general manager of the Animal Regulation Department.

Aiming for Compromise

“We’re now trying to find a way to compromise, to protect the rights of everyone,” DeSanctis said.

One neighbor, Humberto Rincon, 56, said he hardly notices the Koehlers’ goats, adding, “I don’t consider the goats a problem at all.

Rincon, who lives across the street from the Koehlers, said, “There’s nothing going on over there that I would complain about.”

But another neighbor sees it differently.

“I hate to start a neighborhood squabble, and the Koehlers have cut down on the goats, but the smell is so bad I haven’t been able to open my bedroom window for many years,” said Marjorie White, 65, who lives next door to the Koehlers. “We used to enjoy the breeze because we live in a canyon, but that’s not possible anymore. I have friends who have to take allergy pills before they come to our house.”

Still another woman who lives near Koehler, Donna Lethcoe, said a former neighbor had a herd of goats that bothered her. “It was just too much for this area,” said Lethcoe, 45. “There has to be a limit.”

Some of Koehler’s other opponents claim she and other goat-raisers are running goat businesses, selling the animals and their milk.

Koehler said that, although she sells milking goats, “it’s far from being a commercial business because we don’t make any money.” She said, “In fact, we’ve almost never broken even. It’s more a hobby. We’re not in it for the money.”

The controversy has become so volatile sometimes that Koehler once suggested to her husband that they either move from the home they’ve lived in for 19 years or get rid of their goats.

‘It’s Our Way of Life’

“He said, ‘I’m not going to do either,’ ” said Koehler last week, as she fed one of the baby goats that had come bouncing out of the wooden “condominium” Fred Koehler built in the backyard. “It’s our way of life. We love it too much to give it up.” The Koehlers take their goats to fairs and auctions all over the state.

The goats, which have large floppy ears and humped noses, react almost like tame dogs as they are fed and milked in the backyard.

The couple got their first goat shortly after they moved into the neighborhood. Pat Koehler has been allergic to cow’s milk since she was a child, and can only drink goat’s milk. Buying a goat was a way to cut down on buying expensive goat’s milk, she said.

When that goat had kids, the Koehlers took the offspring to a goat show and entered them in competition. “Everything got started from there,” she said.

Fred Koehler, who is retired from the Department of Water and Power, said the goats don’t bother the neighborhood. “I clean the pens every day, and we make sure everything is as clean as it can be,” he said. “Most of the time, they’re quiet, except when they’re in heat.”