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City asks Moby Dick Inn owner to remove goats by end of the week

Council could change livestock bylaw to allow goats to reside within city limits
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The owner of the Moby Dick Inn in Prince Rupert purchased two goats to help her tame the weeds on her property. (Shannon Lough / The Northern View)

The City of Prince Rupert is asking for Moby Dick Inn owner to have her goats removed by the end of the week.

Teresa Lee said she purchased goats — named Tanny and Hanny — from a Hazelton farmer this past weekend. The goats were meant to maintain the weeds outside the inn, but the city said that keeping livestock is not a permitted land use within the city’s current Zoning Bylaw.

The only way the goats would be permitted on the property is if the existing Livestock Prohibition Bylaw 2987 would be changed by council to permit the livestock within city limits.

READ MORE: Moby Dick Inn owner wants to keep goats to tame weeds

“If council did decide to permit livestock within city limits, then a zoning amendment would have to follow that to determine where it is acceptable for them to be. Zoning amendments involve public notification and a public hearing in front of council so that the community can provide their input,” said Veronika Stewart, communications manager for the city in an email.

“Meanwhile, what do I do with the goats?” Lee said. “We have a problem right now,” she added, referring to the weeds.

The city has asked Lee for voluntary compliance.

“If they say so then we have to right? I’d like to keep them. What do we do? Send them back to Hazelton, and if they go they go, I’m not bringing them back,” she said.

The one location in town where the goats could stay is in the Prince Rupert Wildlife Shelter. The shelter existed in that location before the current Zoning Bylaw. The city said they are considered ‘existing non-conforming’ and are allowed to have livestock on site.

Have your say. Vote in our web poll.

WEB POLL: Do you think Moby Dick Inn should be allowed to keep their goats, Tanny and Hanny?

Or send in a letter to the editor.


Shannon Lough | Editor
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