Goats in the city

[Guest guest]

I had recently inquired about mini breeds, nigerians etc. and told those who

replied that we were working on getting our city to lift restrictions on micro

farm animals. First the group got the 2 hen limit rule froze, now we can have

more. Tonight we went in on the goat issue. Here is an email i sent out to

people tonight to give them a heads up:

Just wanted to share with everyone. Email i sent out to others in my town. We

have been trying to get the farm animals in the city ban lifted = urban

homestead . We got hens in, well they only allowed 2 so our group asked for a

freeze on the limits. Next on the list was goats:

Eugene Urban Goats -lift ban urban/micro farming

Tonight's City Council meeting was a success. I do not see what at this point it

is not going through. We already had 1 board member on board as people from his

district as the ones who started organizing this thing. By the time we left we

had at least 5 members openly say they were on board, they will be holding a

work session and will one way or another come to some conclusion about how to

let

city of Eugene residents get 2-3 goats.

Woods who wrote the White Paper that outlines micro farming/urban

homesteading in the City of Eugene's Food Security Plan spoke again. Also Cheryl

author of Raising Goats For Dummies and a second book on health care for

goats was there as well.

We had 20 of us in all with 3 minutes each to talk, trying to persuade them to

allow it. I had not gone to a City Council meeting before, much less spoke at

one. It was actually pretty neat to be there and see it in action. I do believe

before this birthing season ends we will see the ban frozen and Eugenians will

be able to keep backyard goats.

I spent today canvasing my neighborhood knocking on doors talking to pretty much

all of my neighbors on my own street and the one behind me as they would be my

backyard neighbors telling them what we were up to and gathering signatures.

Almost everyone was not only supportive but enthusiastic about it. It was pretty

encouraging.

Many people had no idea that it would even be illegal to begin with, others

thought wow i can bring my goats home as they are boarding them out of the city,

some said they would never want one but felt they did not have the right to

those of us who do no when it is our property. It was a great experience i fully

enjoyed being part of making a change like this, paving the path for us to have

food freedoms in the city limits .

Anyhow just wanted to share!