Is there a comparison chart of the relationship of small and large animals?

[clanter]

My city has decided they want to “update” the animal ordinance as there have been some abuses that have skirted the intent.

Before miniature livestock was not considered, proposed is that three miniatures will equal one large livestock animal (horse/cow). Actually I have no disagreement as we have three miniature horses and they do pretty much equal one real horse in food/waste (but far exceed in amount of trouble they can get into)

They want to count a pony as a horse. I understand their reasoning as the ordinance must be simple to enforce and you can not bring in a steward to measure the animal to decide is it a horse or is it a pony. (and what determines a miniature cow I have no idea but we have neighbors who have them)

My concern is small animals. They want to continue the 3 to 1 relationship.

My granddaughters have five goats (they are clicker training these things to preform… actually got invited by American Got Talent last Spring making to it the finial director cut)… but it appears to me that five goats would equal one horse.

So does any one have a chart that shows a correlation of needs/requirements that would be easy to comprehend? or is it reasonable to just assume three little things are equal to one big thing, that reasoning does make it simple to enforce.

I have been invited to a special one on one meeting to discus this with the person who is handling the rewrite and if there is actually some data somewhere other than this is what I feel is correct it would be nice to present…

Under the new proposals we are still well within the requirements of the ordinance, so I really do not have a need but just wanted to make the changes fair to all.

[Sandysmom]

Seems to me it would be hard to correlate goats to horses as they have different needs. Goat poop is much smaller and dryer than horse poop and they tend to scatter it.

[clanter]

@Sandysmom

Seems to me it would be hard to correlate goats to horses as they have different needs. Goat poop is much smaller and dryer than horse poop and they tend to scatter it.

The city currently is not differentiating between species of animals, just “small” and “large” which I can understand to make it easy to delineate for the average person.

(Just a note here: the city when it was incorporated some 70 years ago was rural, today it is surrounded and in the middle of a few million people, Historically livestock was allowed, it appears that the current trend is to restrict or limit this historical use as an aspect of the city)

I suspect what will occur is a requirement to chip all existing animals and register into a data base all animals. This has not been mentioned nor suggested but I see no way around it.

Then forward any none conforming lot can not replace whatever has been removed (sold/died/given away) . To the average person most all horses look alike anyway and to me a cow is cow, some may be black or red but otherwise they “look” the same.

My guess at this time is the 3 whatever they call small animals to 1 whatever is a large animal ratio will be held in place.

My concern is what is going to be determined what

[Hippolyta]

It might be useful to find space requirements for each - eg square footage for a dwarf goat, horse, pony, etc. I am not sure that volume of waste is something that is typically calculated & it might be difficult to find.

The space requirements will most likely be published separately for each species. Your best bet would be to use extension sources for your documentation.

[Peggy]

My dad’s city breaks animals up into several size ranges: https://librarystage.municode.com/ca/rolling_hills_estates/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT17ZO_CH17.46AN

For some reason, horses aren’t included in the chart in that link, but it’s two horses on the smaller lots and four on the “larger” ones (maybe over half an acre??). Things ste mostly handled on a complaint basis. The last I heard, pigs were not officially allowed.

[clanter]

Thanks for the info, this helps

I am not sure as to just what the city wants, as usual they have their agenda which I think was aimed at a specific person… then all hell broke loose as the citizens nearly came to the meeting with pitchforks to present their points of view. (small city, little known board meeting, rarely attended by any one other than the board members and fifty-seven citizens showed up)

Peggy… thanks for the web link. I has mentioned when I was working in Chatsworth the common housing of a horse was a dry lot of about 20by40

Hippolyta… good points … whatever that is done must be simple and clearly definable that removes a judgement call by the enforcement officer … to me, the ordinance must be simple and easily understood. Waste currently is only considered if there is a complete lack of sanitary conditions that have become a point of contention… there are people who walk their dogs and do not pickup their dog’s poop and they will be the first to complain about the waste in a horse’s corral.

[Hippolyta]

Good luck!

[clanter]

had a one on one meeting today, I believe rather than using the words “miniature horse”, “pony” and “horse” they are going have height limitation of a set number of inches measured at the withers if needed, otherwise a visual judgement can be made in most cases. 50 inches seems to be in the ballpark… 50 inches and over is to be a large animal. under a small. The ratio of 3 smalls equals one large appears to be agreeable.

When it was mentioned Pony and Horse… I believe they thought a pony was always a much smaller horse. I did show him the picture of our “pony” and our buckskin standing next to one another . The Bay is 14.1+ and always measured under 14.2 so technically a pony The buckskin is 15.2.

Also regarding miniature horses, American Miniature Horse Association has a height limit of 36 inches to be registered over that it not a minie in their eyes… therefor if sorted by by minie, pony, horse it might become confusing …small or large with a break point seems to work.

I must say thanks to Peggy’s link they will not be regulating hamsters

There will be special provisions for some such as show sheep or goats will be handled as special case.

Overall there will not be any radial changes, mostly clarifications removing ambiguous terms with specifics

[Hippolyta]

Good for you! It sounds like they really needed your wisdom. It takes effort to do this, and often it gets missed or doesn’t happen. You are a great American

Hamsters could be dangerous

Your parade horses are looking good!

[Peggy]

@clanter

I must say thanks to Peggy’s link they will not be regulating hamsters

My work here is done.

[clanter]

@Hippolyta

Your parade horses are looking good!

they had done parades but the photo is of a flag presentation at the opening of three day, the event. The buckskin was competing, the bay we brought in since none of the eventers could or would carry a flag

This was the same three day that daughter was wanting her horse to look more closely at a concrete picnic table…horse stopped short, she cues him to go forward he think she wants me up on top of that so the next thing there they were standing on top of this picnic table that was about 40 inches off the ground…looking just like a civil war general’s statue. I saw it happen and still have no idea how he flat footed jumped up there with her on him. it was he was standing there on the ground next he on the table.

All she could say What Did He Do? … then it was How Do I Get Him OFF! … let him have his head, loosen the reins cue him forward…he looks as the bench then decides to just step top the ground

That horse would do Anything For her …he was a national champion in several disciplines