And Now... A Boy And His Goat Jump On A Trampoline
Trampoline Jumping Goat Helps Ohio Boy Cope With ADHD
Local Township says the pets violate zoning code
By Jane Prendergast, Enquirer staff writer
MIAMI TOWNSHIP - Behind a two-story house on a quiet cul-de-sac here in Clermont County, a boy jumps on a trampoline with his goats.
Two goats. They're David Valentine's 4-H projects, his pets. He lets D.J. and Blessing in the house to watch television, feeds them Tums and shares his sunflower seeds.
The 2½-year-old caramel
pygmy and the 18-month-old American Alpine are also the only things
that help the 12-year-old manage his attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, David's mother, Patty, insists.
The family has dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, turtles, a parrot and a gerbil named Joe, but those somehow don't have the same effect on David as the goats.
But township zoning law says goats and a subdivision don't mix.
That led the family this week to federal court, where an advocacy group for people with disabilities filed a federal lawsuit against the Miami Township trustees.
The suit alleges that the
township's refusal to allow the goats is a violation of fair housing
laws. Patty Valentine says the family would have to move, which they
can't afford to do, if David can't continue living here with D.J. and
Blessing.
"God gave us a miracle,'' she said Thursday. "These goats are a gift from God, they really are.''
No, the township says, they're a violation of zoning code, which clearly defines "household pets'' as dogs, cats, birds, snakes of less than 6 feet, mice, gerbils, ferrets, hamsters, minks, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, turtles, lizards, iguanas and pot-bellied pigs.
As
Township Administrator David Duckworth put it: "If you live in a
subdivision, if you buy a house, do you want goats in your neighbor's
back yard?''
Several neighbors declined to comment Thursday about the goats. Some have been objecting to their presence since D.J. first arrived in the spring of 2003.
The Valentine house does look different from those around it on Blue Spruce Drive.
There's a pen for the goats, pens for rabbits Ellie Mae, Buddy and CC, various things the goats climb on, and an electric fence to keep all the animals in. The family next door has only a golden retriever.
Thursday,
David's mother was nailing together the beginning of a wood privacy
fence to put up between her back yard and her neighbors', which the
township asked her to do. The township summoned the family to court
Nov. 17 to try to enforce its zoning code.
The Valentines, represented by a lawyer with the Ohio Legal Rights Service in Columbus, turned to federal court to argue that it's against the law to discriminate against a handicapped person by denying him a dwelling.
David,
a seventh-grader in Milford schools, keeps his grades up because he
knows he doesn't get to play with or take care of the goats unless he
does well in school, his mother says. Both goats have won ribbons at
the Clermont County Fair. David and his dad, Dale, both showed them
this summer and won.
D.J. and Blessing aren't walking to the bus stop in the mornings with David anymore - the family is trying to keep them low-profile while the suits are pending.
David thinks the goats motivate him more than the other pets because they're like a kid with ADHD.
"They don't really listen very well,'' he said. "That's kind of like me.''
