Rabbits and Zoning Issues

What you need to understand is that whatever the law mandates is what you are bound by. I have witnessed people argue with local zoning board of appeals when they believe the law is unfair, but the appeals board can't do anything, they must administer the law. Likewise the code enforcement officer is following the law if you are reported for a zoning violation, arguing with them is useless and could hurt you in the long run. An unfair law must be changed by lobbying your local legislators. Don't expect someone else to do this for you, it may never get done.

If you already know you are in violation of zoning, you should develop a plan of action as one never knows when someone will turn you in. Decide how you will argue your case and how you will try to change the law. You may need to hire an attorney and pay fees in order to attempt a change in zoning law. Have a list of allies you can call to lend their support for a change in zoning, be sure to recruit respected town leaders as well as anyone involved with animals (rabbit clubs both local and national, breeders, vets, feed dealers, shelters, agriculture societies, pet owners, neighbors, family, friends, co-workers, etc). Try to get one or more legislators on your side. Involve the media!

If you get a notice of violation check on the amount of time you have to remove your animals. Try to find another location where you can legally have them so you don't have to sell off your herd. Check into the appeals process for zoning violation, use the law to your advantage. When dealing with officials, especially code enforcement officers be polite, make friends with them as they can be your biggest ally, or enemy if they aren't treated properly.

I have heard several first hand accounts of breeders bad experiences with zoning. In nearly every case it begins with a neighbor turning the breeder in for a zoning violation. In Bob Bennett's book "Raising Rabbits the Modern Way" he discusses why it is advantageous not to tell your neighbors you have rabbits. Why? They are unlikely to purchase a pet from you, and that in itself may be a source of problems if they did buy a pet from you. More importantly they may turn you in at some point. Even if you think you get along famously with a neighbor it's no guarantee of future problems.

At this point I'd like to relate my own zoning story, which is fairly typical of the whole. The day before we went on vacation I received a letter in the mail from our code enforcement officer. It basically said that I was running a business of breeding and selling Netherland Dwarfs from my home and as there was no record of the proper permits to do this I was to cease. This came as a total shock. I had told a few people on our street that I was raising rabbits and everyone thought that was just great. Luckily, I was aware of what our zoning code said, and that rabbits weren't listed as livestock (our town uses the state definition). I was so upset I cried for quite awhile before I called the code officer. I was very polite as this individual had a reputation and explained that I received the letter and did not understand what I was in violation of since rabbits weren't specifically mentioned in our town code. He said that the problem was in whether or not I was running a business, as a home based business required permits. Notice in this "land of the free" we have allowed ourselves to become over regulated, you can't "do your business" without a permit or license anymore. I then explained it was a hobby and that by IRS terms I was not a business. All he wanted to know was if I claimed it on my taxes and/or had filed a DBA (doing business as), that is probably what most would ask in determining if it's a business or hobby.

It turned out that my next door neighbor reported to the town supervisor that I had a barn full of rabbits and was selling them as a business. She lied btw as my rabbits are indoors and at that time I had 15 rabbits, hardly a barn full. I suspected it was her when I received the letter but the officer was very reluctant to reveal the identity of the stool pigeon. Some breeders have told me they were told they would need a lawyer to get the name of the person who turned them in. And it was reported to me that a rabbit rescuer (House Rabbit Society rescuer in this particular case) was claiming responsibility for turning a breeder in for a zoning violation. It would make sense, they are trying to stop breeding and reporting a zoning violation pretty much puts an end to it. If you live near any rabbit rescuers it would be best to be wary.

Back to my story, why did the "nice" old spinster turn me in? She knew for two years I had rabbits, she had come over to see them on occasion and thought it was great I was into showing. It went back almost a year to when we told her she couldn't dump her garbage on our property. She had done so with the previous two owners and fully expected to continue. She never told us she was angry that we told her to stop, although she did complain to my parents, instead she waited almost a year to turn me into zoning and take her revenge. So the moral of the story is don't trust your neighbors! Friends today, who knows what tomorrow. Many breeders have been in the same boat, a friendly neighbor who turns out to have been the culprit, and often the reason is due to some perceived injustice you committed. They don't care about the rabbits but know it will get to you.

Of course there are those neighbors who simply think of rabbits as livestock and do not want to live next to a rabbit breeder. This group as with the other will often complain to officials about mystery odors that they always smell, just not when the officials come to investigate. This situation is very difficult as the squeaky wheel gets oiled and you find yourself harassed. A breeder in CA went through what can only be described as hell with just such a neighbor. Along with zoning animal control was called in. Despite all parties agreeing that her animals were well kept and clean, and no odors were ever present during an inspection, they tried to force her to cut down drastically on the number of rabbits and also began applying pet store regulations on her. She was getting surprise inspections at all hours, including late at night. Even the police were sent to patrol around her house to check for an odor. I don't know what the outcome was but she was in the process of getting a lawyer. Legal representation is a must in these cases, of course it isn't cheap and no one will reimburse you.

Other forms of restrictive zoning include setting limits on the number of rabbits you can own, or limits based on property size, restricting the location of any outdoor hutches or barns (usually in the form of distance from property lines), prohibiting rabbits outright or keeping them outside or in hutches, restricting manure on property, restrictions based on if you live in an area classified as residential. Zoning problems was mentioned as a reason ARBA membership is dwindling, and one can easily see why. This can be very restrictive for rabbits breeders. It is also why you need to check laws prior to moving to new areas and also monitor what is currently going on in your local government in case changes are made to zoning or it is adopted. Many times towns will adopt ordinances similar to neighboring areas. For example San Francisco has a law prohibiting the sale of pet rabbits (you can only sell them for meat). Irvine also has the same law, adopted close to when the San Francisco law went into effect.

A final note, we need to help each other out when there are zoning problems, strength in numbers thing plus who knows when it might be your turn! Write letters opposing restrictive zoning, educate your lawmakers, do whatever it takes to stop the regulation of rabbit breeding.

Laws and Grandfather clauses

For those who think you're safe because of "grandfather clauses" think again. What a GC does is say what you are doing is a non-conforming use because of a change in zoning. You think that will protect you from any future problems. However, the town is looking at you and saying since you are a non-conforming use the goal is to get that property back into a conforming use status. Years go by and suddenly you get a notice of zoning violation in the mail. You inquire and say hey I'm grandfathered. The zoning code officer asks you to prove it. What you now have to do is prove that from before the time zoning was adopted, up to the present time you have been performing the non-conforming use continually without interruption. If at any point you stopped, for any amount of time the GC is null and void. If the officer is a jerk he might say your proof is invlaid, then you go to the zoning appeals board. They hammer you with questions and it's your burden to prove to them you have been continuing uninterrupted for X # of yrs. If they decide they will accept your claims, and if you get enough community support to make it a hot issue, you get screwed again. This time they send the code officer out to inspect your property and detail exactly what you're doing, how much space it takes up etc. You are not allowed to expand, if you decrease the size of the operation you are not allowed to increase it even if only to the point of the original size. Remember the goal is to make your property a conforming use again. The above is what happens, I'm on our town's zoning board of appeals and witnessed first hand the grandfather clause in "inaction" when a local jack of all trades was charged with zoning violations. He had to prove he was doing a number of trades on his property continually from 1972 to 1998. The town demanded copies of all his business records, which he didn't have from a period in the 80's back to before 1972, didn't know he'd need them! I sat and watched witness after witness testify that the person was conducting said businesses on his property since before 1972. So they were hammered with questions like "did you ever see money change hands", one board member argued with two about how did they know the vegetable stand in the front yard was a vegetable stand. It was pathetic, and the town did all it could to try and stop the non-conforming use. It was well known throughout the town that this family did a number of odd jobs so it wasn't like they weren't known by the town officials, and they were certainly an asset to the community. In the end they did decide several activities could no longer be done on the property because there wasn't enough proof that they had been done continually since prior to zoning. They had the code officer define and detail what was being done, and to the extent that the amount of space used to sell vegetables or Christmas trees was measured and recorded. The only reason he got off easy was that many other farmers and contractors were also grandfathered and they rallied to his side for fear they were next. Sorry this is long but I want everyone to understand that the GC is no protection, at any time the town can decide they want to go after you for non-conforming use and unless you're prepared and have the money to hire an attorney you're likely to lose. Same with laws, if one is on the books at any time it can be enforced. Again here in town the officials have decided to start enforcing the sign ordinance. They started with new businesses and are working back to the old. Imagine being told that the sign you had out for over 8 yrs. is in violation and must be removed? Just happened last month to one business, and I'm sure there are others. Just starting to see the cases in the appeals board. I know in CA there are some wacky laws, like San Francisco and the prohibition on selling pet rabbits, if it's a law it can be enforced and arguing that they didn't bother for X yrs. is not a defense. As for classification, you all need to check your town law, see if they define livestock or not, and your state laws. There are all different levels, your state could define different livestock than your local town, sometimes, like where I live, the local level uses the state level definition. If something is defined at federal level it is more likely the states will take that classification. The local level which would be your towns and cities are different, they may be more stringent as to what they allow, this seems to be the case, but a federal and/or state classification would have some impact on the local decision. Legislation is not a fun topic, I myself hate it, but it's like cleaning cages, if you don't bother the "you know what" piles up and then it's a big smelly mess. If you let it pile up too much it might get so big that you can't fix it. I'm not sure my doom and gloom warnings are really getting thru to people, rabbits are getting the unwanted attention of animal rights, now the federal government, the onslaught is just beginning and we are the ONLY ones who stand in defense of rabbit breeding, each and every one of us. If all of us as individuals don't "clean the cages" regularly we won't have rabbits to worry about. Check my site the evidence is on there if you doubt me.

The following is reprinted with author's permission, all names have been changed/deleted. I thought the following might be of use by breeders who are faced with a similar problem or better yet to prepare yourselves to face one. The city this took place in does have a limit law of no more than 10 rabbits allowed on a property. The Humane society apparently didn't know this. On an unhappy note, the zoning variance the author sought to enable her to have the rabbits was denied, the zoning board felt they did not want to set a precedance so they denied the variance. The local government was not helpful in explaining the procedures they have set by law to obtain a variance, good idea to hire an attorney to assist you in this type of legal matter.

The Humane Society:

Dec 1999 We were at the Humane Society and my daughter asked the guy at the counter about a kitten they had. The guy said they wouldn't let us have a kitten (which I wasn't about to get anyway since five is more than enough) because we were "about at the limit." I then asked if there was a limit on rabbits and was told no. Since he said we were "about at the limit" for cats and we had five, I assumed the limit was around six and we were ok. And since he said there wasn't any limit on rabbits, I assumed we were ok there too.

Sunday Feb 20, 2000 An officer for the Humane Society came by my house and informed me that there was a limit on rabbits and you could only have 10 adults. He said I would have about 10 days to remedy the situation.

Monday Feb 21, 2000 Holiday - Humane Society closed

Tuesday Feb 22, 2000 I called the Humane Society to inquire if there was a way to get a special license or waiver to keep the rabbits that we currently have. The lady on the phone told me that I would have to get a kennel license and to call City Code Enforcement. I called Code Enforcement and they said that they don't have anything to do with that and I would have to take that up with the Humane Society. I didn't want to talk to the same person again and had to go to work so I decided to call the next day.

Wednesday Feb 23, 2000 I called the Humane Society again, talked to Officer XXX. He told me that he didn't know what I should do but he would call around and find out. He also said he would try to find out who had been to my house and if he could get the extra time I needed to take to remedy the situation

Thursday Feb 24, 2000 I received a call back from Officer XXX. He informed me that I would have to get a license and gave me the phone numbers for the local Dept. of Agriculture and the State Vet in XXX. He also told me that the other officer was willing to give me the time I needed to take care of it. I called the Dept. of Agriculture from work since it was a local number. They informed me that they only did plants in their branch and suggested I try the State Vet. Since the State Vet was a long distance call, it would have to wait until I was able to go home early and call from there.

Friday Feb 25, 2000 I went home from work early, called the State Vet and explained the situation to the guy that answered the phone. He told me that I could get either a rescue license (since I had rescued the majority of the rabbits) or a breeder license. He said he would send me the paper work.

Tuesday Feb 29, 2000 I called the State Vet and was told the paper work was in the mail.

Wednesday Mar 1, 2000 I received the paperwork from the State Vet, but this only included the paper work for the rescue license -- not the breeder license.

Thursday Mar 2, 2000 I called the State Vet and talked to the vet, Dr. XXX. I asked him which would be better for me: the breeder license, the rescue license or a shelter license. He told me that I would probably be better off with the Breeder license. I also told them that I still hadn't received the paperwork for a breeder license; only for the rescue license. I was assured it would be sent.

Saturday Mar 4, 2000 The breeder license was $175. I didn't mind paying the fee, but just wanted to be sure that it would solve my problem with the city ordinance. I didn't want to pay the money and then find out that I still couldn't keep the rabbits. I took my friend to the Humane Society to look for her missing dog. While I was there, I asked for Officer XXX and was told he was out on a call. I left a message for him to call me.

Monday Mar 6, 2000 Or Tuesday Mar 7, 2000 Officer XXX returned my call. I told him that I could get a breeder's license from the State Vet and asked if that would definitely excuse me from the local ordinance limit. He said that he didn't know and told me to talk to the State Vet and find out what the license entailed and if it would solve my problem. I called Dr. xxx at the State Vet and left a message for him to return my call.

Wednesday Mar 8, 2000 Dr. xxx returned my call. He told me that he didn't know if the license would excuse me from the ordinance or not. He said the decision on that would rest with the director of the Humane Society, Dr. xxxx. I called Dr. xxx and explained my situation to him. I also explained that I was worried that my time would run out before I would have the problem solved. He told me that they wouldn't do anything as far as enforcing the code at this time and that he would find out if it was possible to get around the code and how and get back to me.

Thursday Mar 9, 2000 I received a call from Officer ssss at the Humane Society. She told me that I would need to call the Zoning Dept. and gave me the number and the name of the person she spoke to there. I called the person and explained my situation. She told me that I would need to talk to the Assistant Planner for my area who is AP and gave me her number. I called AP but her voice mail said she was on vacation for the week.

Sunday Mar 12, 2000 An officer from the Humane Society came by to see if I had gotten rid of any rabbits. I told her that I had just talked to Dr. xxx on Wednesday and Officer sss on Thursday and was told that I would be given the time I needed to straighten this out. She said that she would talk to Officer sss and find out what to do.

Monday Mar 13, 2000 I called AP and got her voice mail. I didn't want to leave a message because the first person that I talked to in that office was rather rude when I explained my situation and so I really wanted to speak to her directly. The officer from the Humane Society that was out to my house the day before put in an order for them to come back out on Sunday, March 26 to ticket me if the rabbits were still there. However, the officer did not contact me to let me know about this date. (I found this out on the 26th). In the meantime, I thought I was still under Dr. xxx's promise that I would have time to work this out.

Tuesday Mar 14, 2000 I called AP again and got her voice mail. Again, I didn't leave a message.

Wednesday Mar 15, 2000 I called AP again and got her voice mail. I was getting a little worried because I knew I needed to speak to her in order to get this taken care of. I dialed for the secretary and asked if x was often away from her desk. I was told that she was in the office somewhere and if I wanted to leave a message, she would get back to me quickly. I called AP again and left a brief message asking her to return my call. AP quickly called me back. I explained my situation to her and she said that she would send me the paperwork for a variance and that it would take at least 5 weeks to get a court date.

Wednesday Mar 22, 2000 I received the paperwork for the variance. It was very lengthy and I didn't have time to look at it right away. I decided to complete the paperwork over the weekend.

Saturday Mar 25, 2000 I sat down and looked over the variance paperwork. I couldn't figure out how to complete it since it seemed to be geared toward building permits rather than kennel licenses. I decided to call AP on Monday and ask for her help filling out the paperwork

Sunday Mar 26, 2000 Officer z from the Humane Society showed up at my door at around 7:30 a.m. and asked me if I still had the rabbits. I told him that I had 12 adults. I also explained to him that I had just gotten the variance paperwork in the middle of the week and that Dr. xxx told me I would have the time to complete it. He was very rude and told me that he was to give me a ticket immediately. I told him again that I was supposed to have the time to take care of this and that the only reason it was taking so long was because I couldn't get the correct information from the Humane Society. He then asked me if I still had my four dogs and five cats. I told him yes, wondering what my dogs had to do with this. I know that you can only have four dogs and have never had more than four. He said (very rudely that I was in violation right there because you can only have four dogs and four cats. So he gave me a ticket for too many rabbits and for too many cats. I called Dr. xxx and reminded him that he said I could have the time I needed to get the variance. He said that I needed to call him in the office on Tuesday and if there was a variance and I applied for it, he would take care of the ticket. I told him that I hadn't applied for the variance because I had only received the paperwork a few days ago. He told me to call him in the office Tuesday

Monday Mar 27, 2000 I called AP and told her that I was confused about the paperwork. We set up an appointment on Friday afternoon so that I could get her help with it.

Tuesday Mar 28, 2000 I called a few times and left messages for Dr. xxx.

Wednesday Mar 29, 2000 I called and left a few more messages or Dr. xxx. I spoke to a few people at the Humane Society and was told that they were essentially not going to help me anymore. They told me that this was my problem and that they had gone above and beyond the call of duty when they researched and told me how to get a variance. They told me that was not their job and that it was really my problem to find out how to get a variance.

Friday Mar 31, 2000 I met with AP, and we went over what I needed to do to complete the paperwork.

Sunday April 2, 2000 Sent 6 adult rabbits and 1 young rabbit to my sister to keep until we move. Sent my daughter's kitten to stay with my father until we either move or allowed to have him back through the variance.