Dear Editor, I am an animal control officer for the City of
Merced and we have had similar problems where the houses have gone
up around agricultural land with large animals as reported in the
Sept. 11 edition of The Times in the story on Frank Dutra and his
farm animals.
Dear Editor,
I am an animal control officer for the City of Merced and we have had similar problems where the houses have gone up around agricultural land with large animals as reported in the Sept. 11 edition of The Times in the story on Frank Dutra and his farm animals.
Our city has gradfathered the county folks into the city and let them keep the animals that they had when their property became city.
We also had a complaint of the fence line issue and if the animals break the fence the owner of the animals is liable to fix that fence. You can go to our website at www.cityofmerced.org, go to municipal codes, click on animals, then click animals again and scroll down to section 6.04.081. Our city just put this in place recently for these types of complaints.
The people complaining should have researched the area and its surroundings better before moving in an area that livestock is in if it was going to become a problem for them. This may also help with this situation.
I grew up in the Morgan Hill area and understand how the owner of the goats and horses and mules feels. We have a citizen that has four horses in a very affluent part of the city.
He lived there long before it became city and has had the right to keep his horses on his property. Hope this helps.
Marcia Tilton, Merced
