Post by Christine on Jun 29, 2008 4:19:32 GMT -5
The new faces settling into suburbia
Owners cite practical, spiritual rewards of farm animals as pets
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | June 29, 2008
To hear John McGoldrick tell it, Bambi the goat isn't as much a pet as he is a living Zen koan, a bridge to the peaceful side of his inner spirit. And he does a pretty nice job keeping the weeds down, too.
"Bambi has a mission here - he adds a bit of humanity to a world that's lacking it," the Maynard resident said about his brown Nigerian dwarf goat last week. "His personality is so tender and sweet. He's a connection to the gentler side of ourselves."
The suburban experience has long offered stressed-out urbanites a chance to get closer to nature and agrarian roots. But for some, lawns and landscaping and even a vegetable garden aren't enough.
Chickens in Newton, a pig and a donkey in Wayland, alpacas in Sudbury - they're all part of the region's suburban landscape, thanks to animal lovers who refuse to subscribe to a world model divided neatly into cat people and dog people.
Many of the owners cite practical benefits of owning farm animals as pets, such as the wool provided by alpacas, llamas, and sheep.
While dogs may be personable, some say, they won't help you make an omelet.
"If I was going to be eating eggs, I wanted to be raising my own," said Sheila Leavitt, a lacto-ovo vegetarian who keeps a flock of eight chickens in a backyard coop at her home in Newtonville. "I didn't want to have eggs from industrialized chickens."
Almost invariably, though, suburbanites who own farm animals steer conversations about their pets to intangible benefits, such as peace of mind, and a stronger connection to the earth and to the region's rural past. Owning a chicken or donkey just feels different from owning a dog or a cat, they say, in part due to their relative positions in the food chain.
"Both dogs and cats are predators," McGoldrick said. "These animals are on the other side of the whole predator-prey thing. They are so gentle and so comforting. How did Gandhi put it? Our humanity is measured by the way which we treat the most vulnerable," he said, paraphrasing the renowned Indian pacifist.
Bambi, rescued by McGoldrick several years ago from a nearby farm stand that was going out of business, has a large scar on his left hindquarters that affirms his status as a prey animal. Bambi's longtime companion, a pygmy goat named Max, was killed last year when the two goats were attacked by a large mixed-breed dog that had escaped from its owner's property across town. The dog was later destroyed.
Bambi has since recovered, both physically and emotionally, McGoldrick said. While clearly lonely for Max - goats are herd animals and have a real need for companionship, he said - Bambi is still friendly and inquisitive, and happy to meet the toddlers from local day-care centers who routinely stop by for a visit.
Popularity, McGoldrick and others said, is another unexpected side benefit (or obligation, depending on your point of view) of owning a farm animal in the suburbs. Anyone thinking of adopting one, they say, should be prepared to become the de-facto local petting zoo.
"We didn't plan it that way, but having an antique business, it's worked out really well," said Bruce Sweeney, who with his brothers runs a furniture and lighting restoration business, the Yankee Craftsman, on Route 30 in Wayland.
"For most kids, an antique shop is just about the last place that they want to be," he said. "But they come and they hang out with the animals while their parents shop, and a lot of the time when it comes time for the family to leave, it's the kids that don't want to go."
Sweeney owns four animals: a donkey named Maynard, two miniature horses, Bennington and Tiffany, and a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named Reginald Westinghouse Southwick III, or Reggie. The business is on the site of a former dairy farm that closed in the 1950s, and the animals are kept in a fenced-in area that measures a little less than an acre.
Sweeney says that prospective owners of farm animals should also be prepared to work hard in the winter, since, unlike most domestic pets, farm animals cannot simply be moved inside. That can mean slogging outside several times a day during sub-zero weather to chip the ice off the animals' water, among other chores.
Other challenges, the owners say, include finding a veterinarian who treats large animals, paying more for house calls (farm animals don't do office visits), and being a good neighbor.
Proper manure management is a key factor when it comes to maintaining good abutter relationships, Sweeney said, although with the rising popularity of organic gardening, it has become less of a challenge lately. Sweeney said the dumpster where he deposits his horse and donkey manure is routinely emptied by local gardeners eager to add the prized material to their compost heaps.
Still, tensions between people who own farm animals as pets and their neighbors have led to tighter local restrictions in some area communities.
After a dispute between another goat owner and a neighbor in Maynard, McGoldrick said, the town passed an ordinance prohibiting the keeping of farm animals on properties measuring less than an acre. Luckily, Bambi was grandfathered in under the statute, and can stay where he currently resides, in the large backyard of McGoldrick's neighbor Al, who in the past has kept sheep, pigs, and even a steer.
Several other communities have recently passed rooster ordinances at the behest of neighbors tired of being woken up before dawn by their crowing. Because it is almost impossible to tell whether a chick will be male or female at the time they are sold, roosters top the list of farm animals handled by an adoption program run by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, manager Melissa Ghareeb said.
There has been some push-back - for example, Berlin recently gained final state approval for a new bylaw that defines the town as a farming community and protects farmers and animal-keepers from complaints about the customary noise, dust, and odors associated with agricultural activities. However, owners said that increasing pressures from regulations and neighbors, and the work associated with keeping farm animals, have made it difficult to keep it up.
Sweeney said he will probably not acquire any more animals after his current four, who except for Bennington are all elderly.
"I'm 55 years old," he said. "These animals can live for 25 years. I'm not sure I'm up for starting that kind of relationship all over again."
McGoldrick said he has come close to quitting several times.
"I keep saying: 'I have to stop doing this.' Then I run into someone in town who tells me, 'You know, I used to come down here and visit the animals when I was a little girl.' And I just can't bring myself to do it."
Owners cite practical, spiritual rewards of farm animals as pets
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | June 29, 2008
To hear John McGoldrick tell it, Bambi the goat isn't as much a pet as he is a living Zen koan, a bridge to the peaceful side of his inner spirit. And he does a pretty nice job keeping the weeds down, too.
"Bambi has a mission here - he adds a bit of humanity to a world that's lacking it," the Maynard resident said about his brown Nigerian dwarf goat last week. "His personality is so tender and sweet. He's a connection to the gentler side of ourselves."
The suburban experience has long offered stressed-out urbanites a chance to get closer to nature and agrarian roots. But for some, lawns and landscaping and even a vegetable garden aren't enough.
Chickens in Newton, a pig and a donkey in Wayland, alpacas in Sudbury - they're all part of the region's suburban landscape, thanks to animal lovers who refuse to subscribe to a world model divided neatly into cat people and dog people.
Many of the owners cite practical benefits of owning farm animals as pets, such as the wool provided by alpacas, llamas, and sheep.
While dogs may be personable, some say, they won't help you make an omelet.
"If I was going to be eating eggs, I wanted to be raising my own," said Sheila Leavitt, a lacto-ovo vegetarian who keeps a flock of eight chickens in a backyard coop at her home in Newtonville. "I didn't want to have eggs from industrialized chickens."
Almost invariably, though, suburbanites who own farm animals steer conversations about their pets to intangible benefits, such as peace of mind, and a stronger connection to the earth and to the region's rural past. Owning a chicken or donkey just feels different from owning a dog or a cat, they say, in part due to their relative positions in the food chain.
"Both dogs and cats are predators," McGoldrick said. "These animals are on the other side of the whole predator-prey thing. They are so gentle and so comforting. How did Gandhi put it? Our humanity is measured by the way which we treat the most vulnerable," he said, paraphrasing the renowned Indian pacifist.
Bambi, rescued by McGoldrick several years ago from a nearby farm stand that was going out of business, has a large scar on his left hindquarters that affirms his status as a prey animal. Bambi's longtime companion, a pygmy goat named Max, was killed last year when the two goats were attacked by a large mixed-breed dog that had escaped from its owner's property across town. The dog was later destroyed.
Bambi has since recovered, both physically and emotionally, McGoldrick said. While clearly lonely for Max - goats are herd animals and have a real need for companionship, he said - Bambi is still friendly and inquisitive, and happy to meet the toddlers from local day-care centers who routinely stop by for a visit.
Popularity, McGoldrick and others said, is another unexpected side benefit (or obligation, depending on your point of view) of owning a farm animal in the suburbs. Anyone thinking of adopting one, they say, should be prepared to become the de-facto local petting zoo.
"We didn't plan it that way, but having an antique business, it's worked out really well," said Bruce Sweeney, who with his brothers runs a furniture and lighting restoration business, the Yankee Craftsman, on Route 30 in Wayland.
"For most kids, an antique shop is just about the last place that they want to be," he said. "But they come and they hang out with the animals while their parents shop, and a lot of the time when it comes time for the family to leave, it's the kids that don't want to go."
Sweeney owns four animals: a donkey named Maynard, two miniature horses, Bennington and Tiffany, and a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named Reginald Westinghouse Southwick III, or Reggie. The business is on the site of a former dairy farm that closed in the 1950s, and the animals are kept in a fenced-in area that measures a little less than an acre.
Sweeney says that prospective owners of farm animals should also be prepared to work hard in the winter, since, unlike most domestic pets, farm animals cannot simply be moved inside. That can mean slogging outside several times a day during sub-zero weather to chip the ice off the animals' water, among other chores.
Other challenges, the owners say, include finding a veterinarian who treats large animals, paying more for house calls (farm animals don't do office visits), and being a good neighbor.
Proper manure management is a key factor when it comes to maintaining good abutter relationships, Sweeney said, although with the rising popularity of organic gardening, it has become less of a challenge lately. Sweeney said the dumpster where he deposits his horse and donkey manure is routinely emptied by local gardeners eager to add the prized material to their compost heaps.
Still, tensions between people who own farm animals as pets and their neighbors have led to tighter local restrictions in some area communities.
After a dispute between another goat owner and a neighbor in Maynard, McGoldrick said, the town passed an ordinance prohibiting the keeping of farm animals on properties measuring less than an acre. Luckily, Bambi was grandfathered in under the statute, and can stay where he currently resides, in the large backyard of McGoldrick's neighbor Al, who in the past has kept sheep, pigs, and even a steer.
Several other communities have recently passed rooster ordinances at the behest of neighbors tired of being woken up before dawn by their crowing. Because it is almost impossible to tell whether a chick will be male or female at the time they are sold, roosters top the list of farm animals handled by an adoption program run by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, manager Melissa Ghareeb said.
There has been some push-back - for example, Berlin recently gained final state approval for a new bylaw that defines the town as a farming community and protects farmers and animal-keepers from complaints about the customary noise, dust, and odors associated with agricultural activities. However, owners said that increasing pressures from regulations and neighbors, and the work associated with keeping farm animals, have made it difficult to keep it up.
Sweeney said he will probably not acquire any more animals after his current four, who except for Bennington are all elderly.
"I'm 55 years old," he said. "These animals can live for 25 years. I'm not sure I'm up for starting that kind of relationship all over again."
McGoldrick said he has come close to quitting several times.
"I keep saying: 'I have to stop doing this.' Then I run into someone in town who tells me, 'You know, I used to come down here and visit the animals when I was a little girl.' And I just can't bring myself to do it."