Livestock Ordinance Gets VOTE at Ridgefield Library Tomorrow

For more than a year, Ridgefield resident Tom Pesce and his Manor Road neighbors have been rallying to get an ordinance passed that would prevent residents with less than half an acre of land to keep multiple hooved animals on their property.

Pesce explains, “As crazy as it sounds, we have tenants renting next door to us who have three full-sized horses in their backyard.  They [the horses] have broken through the fence into our yard, left piles of manure in the street and piling up in their yard for weeks on end, have had no shelter from the elements, and have eaten and kicked another neighbor's entire stockade fence to shreds.”

Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 13 at 7:30 pm, the community is invited to attend a Special Town Meeting at Ridgefield Library Lower Level Program Room to vote on the changes in Ridgefield Code under Chapter 120 (Animals Article II: Keeping of Livestock on Residential Property § 120-6. View DRAFT here.

Pesce says, “The Board of Selectmen is bringing this ordinance to vote after presenting several versions of it at town meetings and public hearings over the past few months. The draft [ordinance] is based on recommendations submitted by both the public at public hearings, as well as by a committee comprised of both expert livestock owners and non-livestock owners in Ridgefield.

Petitioning the Town of Ridgefield via Change.org Pesce said:

We believe the keeping of horses at 79 Manor Road in Ridgefield is not only inhumane to the animals, but also a major nuisance and a public health & safety concern for all members of this neighborhood. It is inappropriate to keep horses in a 1-acre zoned, in-town neighborhood such as ours. We, the residents, neighbors, and supporters of this petition are asking for a town ordinance to be passed that would make it illegal to keep these animals here and that would remove them from the property immediately.

Read the petition here.

View the draft ordinance here.

 

 

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Submitted by Ridgefield, CT

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