(MOBILE, Ala.) Sept 16 -- Neighbors are taking their "not in my backyard" complaints to city officials. Some people in a Mobile neighborhood say they are fed up with a family that keeps chickens and goats on its property. These neighbors voiced their complaints in front of the city council. But its not the first time the city's heard about this. This one family has received more than 100 complaints about the animals.
Meet "Gem" the goat, and her sisters "Scape" and "Itsa." They're just three of the seven goats that are on Karen Lathan's property along with numerous chickens. But Karen doesn't live on a rural country farm. She lives on seven acres in Mobile City limits.
"We don't want any problems. We just want to be left alone and would rather everyone else mind they're own business," Lathan said.
Scape and Itsa's frequent appearance in Lathan's front yard, along with her colorful new addition to the side yard, makes it hard for some neighbors to keep opinions to themselves.
"To say tacky would be giving it a compliment," Neighbor John Wink said. "OK. It's beyond tacky."
Neighbors took their opinions to the city council meeting Tuesday, hoping city leaders could help get the animals removed. But what some of the neighbors are starting to find, city ordinances always aren't straight forward. And Lathan's goats and chickens, while in city residential zoning, may actually be legal.
"We may find that because of a variance or permit issued in the past that she is not in violation," Mobile City Councilman John Williams said.
As city leaders check to make sure Lathan crossed all the t's and dotted the i's when comes to her version of a country farm in the city, Scape and Itsa will keep on eating the grass in her yard. And the neighbors, well, they may just have to learn to keep opinions to themselves.
People who live near the goats say they want city leaders to re-evaluate zoning as it pertains to farm animals.
