Pet goats face eviction in Franconia Township — and the owner is fighting back

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Tommy and Bam-Bam, a pair of elderly goats, have been Franconia Township residents for more than 10 years, but in early December, the township’s zoning board ruled to evict them.

Ken Schumann has kept goats on his property since 2000. In May, officials found him in violation of the township’s zoning code, which prohibits keeping livestock animals on any property smaller than three acres.

Schumann argues township officials had visited his one-third-acre property on more than 10 occasions since he got his first pair of goats, Mindy and Molly, more than 20 years ago, including inspections to review construction of a deck and garage, during which the goats were visible. Schumann said he never received a complaint or warning from the township until this spring.

Franconia Township did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The township’s letter citing Schumann’s code violation stems from complaints it received about the goats. Schumann acknowledged that the goats have broken out of his yard multiple times and defecated on a neighbor’s property while he was repairing the fence around their enclosure.

He paid $1,800 to appeal the zoning board’s decision, asking them to grant a one-time variance until Tommy and Bam-Bam die of old age. At 15 and 10 years old, respectively, the goats are near the end of their life expectancy.

At a hearing on Dec. 4, the board denied the request.

Schumann’s options now, he said, are to rehome the goats or keep up the fight in court. He and his wife, Kathleen Schumann, are both retired and on a fixed income. The two are considering setting up a GoFundMe to pay for legal expenses.

“It’s not like I’m asking to change the zoning and let me have more goats,” he said. “I’m simply asking for a variance to let them live their life out here. That’s all I’m asking — and, more importantly, an explanation why they never said a word, never. So that only led me to believe, knowing they were here, physically, seeing these goats all these years, that wasn’t an issue.”

If he had known he wasn’t allowed to have goats, Schumann said, he wouldn’t have acquired Cupcake and Peaches after Mindy and Molly died. He wouldn’t have gotten Bam-Bam as a young goat or adopted Tommy, a retired therapy animal, in 2015.

As of Saturday, more than 1,600 people have signed an online petition calling on the township to let Tommy and Bam-Bam live out the rest of their lives on Schumann’s property.

“I live directly next door to Tommy and Bam-Bam,” wrote one person, who identified themselves as Erin on the petition. “They make our day. They are harmless. I bear witness to these goats making the day of the school children next door.”

Throughout the years, Schumann has taken his goats to visit a neighboring daycare so that the kids can pet them through a fence, he said.

Both goats are attached to him and his wife, he said, and he considers them as domestic pets since they aren’t used for any agricultural purpose.

“A lot of people would say, ‘Ken, they’re just two goats,’ you know, ‘Just rehome them,’” he said.

“I could do that, but … they’ve lived there their entire life … We’re already attached to them, as are they to us. I just think they would die of a broken heart.”

More people across Pennsylvania are keeping goats, either as pets or for agricultural purposes, according to Austin Brown, a small ruminant extension associate at Penn State University. In his role, Brown works to translate scientific research into on-the-ground best practices for managing sheep and goats throughout the state.

“In comparison to a cow, it takes a whole lot less barriers for entry with these small ruminants,” he said. “So it’s definitely an increasing trend to own them.”

Brown said goats need to forage and have accessible feed, and they must have good ventilation in their enclosures. Whether a goat is kept as a pet or for agricultural use, he said that goat owners should have a management plan for manure, odor and disease.

In his work, Brown said that he doesn’t define when goats are or aren’t pets. However, as with dogs, goats can be “serving a different purpose,” depending on their role, he said.

“Obviously, a goat is maybe a little bit more untraditional, but it’s still an animal that’s serving within a different capacity,” Brown added.