Designer Pets : Pygmy Goats, Other Tiny Beasts May Soon Be Allowed in Orange

Pygmy goats have yet to replace pot-bellied pigs as the latest in trendy pets, but they may soon be making their way to Orange homes if the City Council approves a “designer animal ordinance” to accommodate unusual pets.

“You can walk them on a leash and teach them tricks and they all have a personality of their very own,” said Stephen Heilman, 17, regional youth representative for the National Pygmy Goat Assn. “Once you’ve seen one, you can’t imagine having anything else as a family pet.”

The miniature goats, which sell through breeders for $50 to $1,500, are cuddly, affectionate and make loyal pets, Heilman said. They are easily housebroken and love to be petted and bottle-fed.

Heilman, a senior at Orange High School, became infatuated with pgymy goats shown at the 1985 Orange County Fair. By the following year, he had turned his infatuation into a business and now owns about 60 goats. He breeds them at a Corona horse ranch and has sold the pets to families and other breeders from the coast of Dana Point to the hills of Silverado.

But under an Orange ordinance, the goats are considered livestock and not permitted in residential areas. Heilman is lobbying the City Council to amend the ordinance to allow for unusual pets such as miniature farm animals.

All they require to be happy are a few pounds of alfalfa and goat ration--a grain mix--each day. A 20-by-10-foot pen can accommodate two goats.

“If they’re lonely, they’ll jump the pen,” Heilman said, “so we recommend a doe and a wether (a castrated male).”

Pygmy goats stand just 16 to 20 inches tall at the shoulder and weigh 50 to 80 pounds. They are not genetically altered versions of the larger barnyard animals but an independent breed originating in Cameroon and Nigeria. The goats can be white, chocolate brown and jet black, with darker markings on their legs, face and back.

Despite the reputation of goats as living garbage disposals that devour tin cans, Heilman said pygmy goats are picky eaters who are partial to roses.

Pygmy goats may be cleaner and more fun than pot-bellied pigs, but they are not ready to supplant the miniature pigs as the trendy yuppie pet of the moment, said George Starbuck, a former president of the National Pygmy Goat Assn. who raises the animals in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“Most of the people are serious about (goats) and have two or three, and babies, and raise them in a semi-farm situation--rather than in the back seat of their Mercedes,” Starbuck said.

Increasing requests throughout Orange County to allow animals like miniature horses, pot-bellied pigs and pygmy goats in residential neighborhoods are a signal that people are trying to hold on to rapidly vanishing rural roots, said Susan Tully, code enforcement supervisor for the city of Orange.

In 1988, there was a celebrated pygmy goat case in Costa Mesa where Arthur and Angela Raj Kumar were ordered to get rid of their pet. But after meeting Barney the pygmy goat, the council voted 4 to 0 to allow small farm animals in the city with a permit.

While current laws in the city of Orange limit goats to agricultural zones or neighborhoods designed to accommodate the animals, such as Orange Park Acres, the council may consider passing a “designer animal ordinance” to regulate unusual pets like miniature livestock, Tully said.

“I don’t see where a pygmy goat is a whole lot different than a dog,” Tully said. “In fact, they’re kept more confined than dogs and cats so they’re probably a lot less trouble.”

But Starbuck cautions that pygmy goats are not for everyone.

“I don’t want to see people have them in a condo or an apartment,” he said. “They need fresh air and a lot of it. They have been successfully raised indoors, but I don’t recommend it. Besides, a bale of alfalfa will make a mess in your house in a hurry.”

PYGMY GOATS FACTS

Height: 16 to 20 inches at the shoulder

Weight: 50 to 80 pounds

Life span: average of 10 years

Feed: Alfalfa and goat ration, a grain mix; several pounds each day

Price: $50 to $1,500

Origin: West Africa and China

Population: 15,000 in the United States