Arcadia Reins In Horse Owner on Back-Yard Herd

Harold Ellis, a big, bearded man with a penchant for cowboy hats, never took kindly to government officials telling him how many horses he could keep in his suburban back yard.

Now he’s really mad.

The City Council on Tuesday amended a law that limits the number of horses an owner can keep on his property. The amendment came after the city lost a court battle with Ellis over a law--interpreted by Ellis to allow seven horses per property and by the city to allow five--that has been on the books since the 1940s.

The city had cited Ellis last summer for having more than five horses on his 40,700-square-foot parcel on 8th Avenue. But in December, Santa Anita Municipal Court Judge Clark Moore threw out the city’s misdemeanor complaint against Ellis, ruling that the law appeared to allow seven horses per property.

The ordinance had stated that residents with lots of 16,000 square feet or larger may keep up to two horses, with an extra horse allowed for each additional 5,000 square feet--”provided that no more than a total of five” are kept on the property.

Ellis argued that the ordinance allowed two horses plus up to five additional horses. The city, however, says that the law allowed a total of five.

The amended ordinance now states that “not more than a total of five . . . shall be kept on any one lot.”

City officials said that they are simply clarifying the law, but Ellis, 53, said he will challenge the constitutionality of the law “all the way to the federal courts.”

“They’re clarifying it down from seven to five,” Ellis said. “The limit is based on guesswork and not any reasonable criteria. It’s a number they plucked out of the sky.”

Planning Director William Woolard said he did not know the original rationale for limiting residents to five horses, but said the ceiling was reasonable “when you consider the primary use of property here is single-family homes. My guess is somebody thought five was a lot of horses to live next to.”

An unrelated survey conducted by the Monrovia Planning Department last summer found that La Mirada, Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont and Burbank placed no limits on the number of horses per property. Monrovia and West Covina had ceilings of 10, and San Dimas, La Canada Flintridge and Bradbury had limits of five.

Councilman Robert Harbicht said the council made the changes--which apply to all equine animals, including mules and donkeys--to avoid confusion. “We decided that if we had an unenforceable law, let’s clean it up. So we’re cleaning it up.”

Of Ellis, he added: “The man is a scofflaw. He’s been in violation of the law for years. How many horses does one person need?”

Ellis said that he had between 12 and 15 horses on his property when he was cited by the city.

Woolard said Ellis was cited after the city received a neighbor’s complaint about the number of animals on the property. The city later received another complaint, Woolard said.

Nevertheless, Ellis proudly proclaims his love for the animals. The bumper stickers on Ellis’ tan Pontiac read: “Have you hugged your horse today?” and “Fight Smog! Ride a horse.”

Behind his home this week, Ellis, a self-employed machine technician, gestured toward a filly and two colts munching alfalfa in the arena. Four mares, all thoroughbreds, looked on from their corrals. He said he also boards an undisclosed number of horses elsewhere.

“When we first moved here we couldn’t even see houses on the other side,” said Ellis, an Arcadia resident since 1961. “We used to have goats, pigs, ducks, geese and turkeys. Nursery school buses would come down as a field trip.”

As more homes sprouted up in the neighborhood, he continued to maintain a menagerie. Today, 20 to 30 homing pigeons roost behind the house, half a dozen chickens cackle in the side yard, and three sleepy snakes peer out of glass tanks in the living room. Cats and dogs are also part of the household.

Ellis lives with his 25-year-old daughter, Peggy, and his son, Walter, 29.

“Over the past 10 years we’ve maintained 10 to 19 horses at (any) time,” Peggy Ellis said. She got her first donkey as a 5-year-old, when she answered a newspaper notice offering a donkey free to a good home. Since then her passion has shifted to horses; more than 20 have been born on the property. “I love having horses,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine life without them.

“We were hoping to get a farm one day,” she added. “But our farm went into attorneys’ fees.”

Ellis claims the city--which has cited him twice under the horse law--has been giving him a hard time because of his opposition to development projects.

Woolard said Ellis’ slow-growth views have nothing to do with the city’s enforcement of the law. He said Arcadia officials have investigated complaints concerning three or four other properties in the last two years.

“He was not the first,” he said, “nor the last.”