Update- Getting the City Council On-Board

Taking the advice of my contact with the Ingham County commission, I contacted two city council members (one for Lansing, one for East Lansing) on Monday to let them know that some goat legislation may be coming their way (I'm pretty confident at this point that it WILL be coming their way). I'm thrilled to have heard back from both of them already...and they both sound like they're on-board and maybe even excited about it!

Hypothetical Progress Is Better Than No Progress At All

My contact with the Ingham county commission emailed me today with some updates. He said that he has mentioned the goat proposal to some other commission members. None of them were super enthused about it, but nobody seemed opposed to the idea either. He is planning on discussing the goat issue at the next commission meeting next Tuesday December 13.

He wants to have a resolution written and ready for approval by the Law Enforcement committee in January. It sounds like this was how the chicken ordinance went about (approval by the law enforcement committee was the main thing that had to happen). He said he may want me to make a presentation to this committee similar to the one I did for the Animal Control Advisory Board.

Once the resolution is passed in Ingham County, we still have to get ordinances on the books for each city in Ingham County. He suggested that I contact the city council person for Lansing and East Lansing and give them a heads-up that this resolution may be on its way. I'm a little confused about this because I don't think Lansing added anything to it's municipal code specifically about chickens after the chicken resolution went through in Ingham County (so why do we need to do it for goats?). I'm assuming it's just for more protection from the law and to prevent Lansing from outlawing urban goats if the county adopts a goat ordinance.

Update: Waiting Game

It has only be about a week since I gave my presentation to the Ingham County Animal Control Shelter Advisory Board, so I'm assuming little has happened yet. The next county commission meeting isn't for another week. This would be the first opportunity for the representative from the advisory board to talk to the board of commissioners about my ordinance proposal.

I realize it's a busy time of year for everyone and a lot of people are changing positions or leaving certain board positions, so I'll have to be patient and see what happens in the next month or two.

I want to be persistent and keep in contact we the people who will be representing the goat ordinance, but I want to avoid pestering them much too!

Timeline Update: Advisory Board Meeting

So I attended the Ingham County Animal Control Shelter Advisory board meeting last night. I was surprised because they actually put me on the agenda (so I had more time than a normal public comment). I  handed out my information packets, gave my presentation, and then the board asked me some questions and we had some discussion. It was very informal (plus there were only 6 board members) and they were very nice and enthusiastic.

Overall, I think it went really well! They said that my info packet was really good and thorough (and joked that they should have me write proposals for them in the future). They mentioned that I might have to give my presentation again in the future (I'm assuming they are referring to a county comission meeting).  A representative from the county is on this advisory board and he said that he would be happy to bring this up with the county commission. However, since we're getting towards the end of the year (and a lot of people either switch or end positions around this time of year), he said that he probably wouldn't be able to do anything until January.

I was really pleased with how it went. However, I'm not really sure what to expect at this point. I don't know if I should be expecting someone to contact me or if I will have to keep in touch with them. The next full board county commission meeting is December 13. I guess I'll probably wait until after that before contacting anyone asking for an estimate timeline.

Tonight's the Night

I'll be speaking to the Animal Control Shelter Advisory Board in approximately 30 minutes! Hopefully I'll have some news to report tomorrow morning.  I'm not expecting them to come to an agreement tonight (it's way too early for that), but at least I'll know what the next step is.

My Amendment Proposal

Here's my proposed amendment to the Animal Control Ordinance. I've looked at similar ordinances from other cities and tried to incorporate all the important parts into the template that was used for the Ingham chicken ordinance.

INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

ORDINANCE AMENDING THE INGHAM COUNTY ANIMAL CONTROL ORDINANCE TO PERMIT KEEPING MINIATURE GOATS IN NON-AGRICULTURAL AREAS

ORDINANCE NO._____

An Ordinance to amend the Ingham County Animal Control Ordinance to permit the keeping of miniature goats in non-agricultural areas of the County.

            Section 2.  Amendment.  Article VIII of the Ingham County Animal Control Ordinance, entitled Prohibition of Livestock or Poultry in Non-Agricultural Areas, is amended to read as follows:

(a)        No livestock or poultry shall be owned, kept, possessed, harbored or kept charge of within the boundaries or any non-agricultural area within Ingham County except as such places are provided for shipping said livestock or poultry.

(b)        ** Section (b), which discusses the keeping of chickens on non-agricultural land has been omitted.

(c)        Notwithstanding paragraph (a), and unless expressly prohibited or regulated by a city, village or township ordinance, or private property restriction, miniature goats may be owned, kept, possessed, harbored, and kept charge of within the boundaries of any non-agricultural area within Ingham County, under the following conditions:

            (i)         No more than three (3) miniature (not more than 100 pounds) goats may be kept at the same time on any one- or two-family residential property, except that nursing offspring may be kept on the property until the age of twelve (12) weeks, and shall not be included in the number of goats allowed;

(ii) All male goats must be neutered;

(iii) Goats must be kept in an enclosure so constructed or repaired as to keep the goats confined on the owner’s property;

(iv) There must be at least one hundred and thirty (130) square feet of land space for each miniature goat as well as adequate shelter space for each goat.

(v)       All feed and other items associated with the keeping of goats that are likely to attract or to become infested with or infected by rats, mice, or other rodents, shall be protected so as to prevent rats, mice, or other rodents from gaining access to or coming into contract with them.

 P.S. sorry the alignment is all over the place! Can't figure out how to fix it in Blogger.

Getting Ready!

This coming Monday night I will be speaking to the Ingham County Animal Control Shelter Advisory Board about the possibility of amending the Animal Control Ordinance to allow for miniature dairy goats on non-agricultural land.

I have made a 10-page handout to distribute to each board member and I will also be giving a short presentation. I'll be posting the handout as soon as I get the formatting finalized.

I posted the table of contents a week ago, if you are interested.