Heather Lombard for a decade has offered up her goats for clients needing a good brush chomping.
Suddenly, Lombard says, she’s being scapegoated – accused of operating an illegal animal sanctuary on her West Kennebunk property.
“There’s an abundance of animals that need to be rescued, and we are basically just trying to give these animals a space and peaceful time for the rest of their lives without any threat of being euthanized or treated poorly,” Lombard said.
But recently Lombard says she was told to get rid of all of her goats and pigs.
Code Officer Brian Paul told her in a citation:
The act of Keeping of Livestock is not a Permitted Use in the West Kennebunk Village Residential Zone and therefore is prohibited.
Based on this interpretation of the ordinance, please take the necessary steps to bring your property into compliance with the local zoning regulations.
Failure to do so may result in the Town of Kennebunk initiating an enforcement action against you that could involve fines and penalties.
Lombard is appealing.
“We are being threatened by the town of Kennebunk’s code office,” she said. “They have mailed us a certified letter telling us we would have to get rid of our animals immediately,”
The Maine Wire has reached out to town officials for clarification.
Lombard owns and operates Scapegoats, a brush-clearing service that uses goats for the task, and Mousam Misfits Sanctuary, a place for farm animals needing shelter.
“The town of Kennebunk is working against its own people and established small businesses,” she posted online. “This isn’t just me, it’s a much wider problem that will be coming to light. Follow the full story at Mousam Misfits Sanctuary.”
Livestock, including horses, ponies, and certain rescue animals, is heavily regulated by Kennebunk zoning ordinances.
Permits are required through the code office and animals can only be kept on appropriately zoned lots of a minimum size.
Do the rules apply to illegals?
She has this operation for awhile, so what changed? New neighbors, local Karen?
She just needs to don a hijab and say the animals are kept for religious purposes and the town fathers will give her a good leaving alone.
more and more, my decision to move to Florida is becoming prescient….
But, but, Miss Lombard is very green and so are her animals. Kennebunk is where all sorts of well to do “folks” from Away come for the summer. Perhaps she could attend the next selectman’s meeting and suggest that she is in the process of opening a bordello for Somalian men to be able to spend some quality time with her goats.
But it is perfectly legal to jam as many illegal aliens as you can into an apartment or home.
It’s just too much of a temptation for Abdullah every time he drives by on his way to drop the kids off at the local Learing Center.
I believe the woke inspired state legislation passed two years ago having to do with your constitutional right to food security needs to be drawn like a pistol here. That law allows for the keeping of farm animals anywhere you want despite local ordinances as long as you’re going to eat the damn things at some point. Shame of the CEO for not being up on the law.
MickeyP, I am not sure they are going to be anything we want to eat after Abdullah and his buddies are done with them.