Police Shut Down Pony Rides : Animals: The operator of the concession vows to fight an order to close her business, which has been a fixture in Reseda for 26 years.

Over the protesting shouts of several parents, Los Angeles animal regulation officers shut down a popular Reseda pony ride Saturday and cited its owner for operating the business without a city permit.

Linda Menary, who started the weekend attraction 26 years ago, was allowed to keep 22 ponies at the two-acre site she owns at Tampa Avenue and Lanark Street, but was ordered not to operate the concession.

“I’m going to fight this,” said an upset Menary, whose petting farm draws about 200 people each weekend. “I’m a fighter and I think I have a right to be here. This is my life.”

Menary defied an order to shut down the pony ride Saturday and said she would do the same today.

If she does, the pony ride will be closed and Menary will be cited again, said Lt. Annetta Reeff of the Department of Animal Regulation.

Until last year, Menary had housed the pony ride and assorted animals, including goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, cows, a llama and an emu, on a nearby lot she owns in the same block of Tampa Avenue.

City officials said that when she moved the rides, that canceled her long-held right to operate a commercial enterprise in a residential-agricultural zone.

Menary was issued the order to shut down on July 3, Reeff said.

“She has exhausted all of her administrative rights to appeal,” Reeff said. “It has come down to the department to close her down. She has received enough notice.”

Several Los Angeles police officers were called to the pony ride and petting farm Saturday “to keep the peace” while the pony ride was being shut down, Officer Steven Ford said. “We don’t like to do this,” he said. “I used to come here when I was a kid.”

Several parents shouted insults at the officers as they went about their work.

“Somebody wants this lot for something,” one man said. “Has to be a developer.”

Others said they would start a petition drive in support of Menary.

“This is a learning experience,” said Leslie Dahlquist of West Hills, a parent and first-grade teacher, “Where else can city kids come to experience farm life? Kids and animals. That’s the bottom line.”

Animal regulation officers cited Menary for various infractions of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, including operating a pony ride without a permit, using animals to draw a crowd, keeping roosters too close to a nearby residence, harboring unlicensed horses and keeping wild animals (the llama and the emu) in the city.

Menary was ordered to appear on the citations July 20 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

She is due July 18 in the same court on similar citations issued last year.

Her attorney, Ronald M. Cohen, said he will ask for a jury trial for his client.

He also said he will ask the court to rule on whether Menary can obtain a permit to operate the pony ride and whether she has the right to appeal to the City Council an earlier denial of the operating permit by the zoning board.