Ashland woman forced to give up one of four dogs

Barbara Keen and her four shelties from left, Nikki, Amber, Killian and Luke. A neighbor's complaint has revealed Keen is in violation of a little known Ashland city ordinance restricting the number of dogs on a property. Photo by Jim Craven | For the Tidings

Three is enough — three dogs, that is — if you live in Ashland.

A little-known city ordinance, passed in 1968, prohibits city residents from having more than three canines over three months old and, for the first time in anyone's memory, police got a complaint that someone had four.

Community Service Officer Kip Keaton went to the scene and spoke with Barbara Keen, 73, who after much protest agreed to farm out one of her four shelties, although he is allowed to come for dinner and walks, as long as he doesn't live in her house.

Keen asked police for some slack on the law, for the short time her eldest sheltie, a 13-year old named Killian, who has cancer, is still alive. Killian's death would bring her into compliance with the law.

Ashland Police Chief Terry Holderness, in a memo to Mayor John Morrison, said the City Council could rewrite the law but "as long as it is on the books we are kind of stuck with it."

The complaint was filed by Vernon Hubka. Messages left at Hubka's phone Wednesday were not returned press time.

Holderness, in his memo, said Hubka told police that, in addition to the four dogs, Keen had six cats and that the creatures "have been causing him problems for several years. She has taken action to reduce the noise but only after a lot of complaints — and her cats are still always going into his yard."

Keen was not cited.

In a letter sent to the Daily Tidings, Keen said the police officer suggested she could resolve the issue by putting the oldest dog to sleep.

"What a horrifying thought!," she wrote. "I was in disbelief at his even thinking this. My dog is not in pain and has good quality of life, despite his ailments. I was hoping to let him live out his life."

Keen also fired off a letter to Mayor Morrison.

"I am now faced with a moral, legal, and inhumane situation," she wrote, "and am looking forward to discussing it with you in the hopes of being issued a legal waiver of Ashland's ordinance due to my sweet old boy not having that much time left on this earth, and my being the only owner he has ever known."

Dean Walker, Ashland's code compliance officer, said the law "seems meant to keep puppy farms and yards full of dogs from happening.

"Unfortunately we've got tension between the parties and that aggravates it," he said.

City codes are meant to serve those who are the complainants, Walker noted, adding "there is always another side of the story and that kind of confusion and fog is not helped when people are not getting along.

"Sometimes, people try to use the city's voice as a tool in their favor to get back at someone, but everyone in the city is trying to be fair and keep this on an even keel," Walker said.

Keen, an executive assistant at Hewlett-Packard in California before she retired, moved to Ashland seven years ago. She said Jackson County Animal Care and Control told her there was no limit on the number of dogs a person could own, as long as dogs were leashed and under control off the property.

Police told Keen that information was incorrect, and that Ashland's municipal code limits residents to three dogs.

Talent's city code has the same limit on dog ownership. Other cities in the Rogue Valley, according to their municipal codes posted on their Web sites, regulate excessive dog barking, or forbid dogs from chasing cars or people, or scattering garbage, or running at large. Some cities require owners to pick up their dog's waste.

Keen said she has seen other people walking four dogs, so it never occurred to her that she might be in violation of Ashland's ordinances.

"I am being penalized for being a loving, caring, and responsible animal owner," she wrote to the mayor. "This law needs to be changed."

Keen has a fenced yard and she said she walks her three remaining dogs on a leash. She said she spent $3,000 for a "cat condo," where her cats may leave the house and enter into a large, screened cage, then go back in the house. Outside her front door, a sign says, "This house is operated solely for the comfort and convenience of the pets."

She said she does not plan to try to get the ordinance changed through the City Council, but she is considering moving from her house.