Pretty Prairie Couple Loses Fight to Keep Geese

November 10, 2009

Therese Ketchem and Dennis Riley

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Ketchem and Riley's efforts to keep their geese didn't work.

The city of Pretty Prairie says it won't amend its animal ordinance so the couple could keep their geese. That means Harry and Lloyd have to go.

Pretty Prairie's city clerk says the couple doesn't get any additional time to move the birds and that they are in violation of the ordinance right now.

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Original Coverage

(PRETTY PRAIRIE, Kan.)

A city ordinance says their pets have to go. Therese Ketchem and Dennis Riley have been raising two geese in their backyard since March.

Map of Pretty Prairie

Harry and Lloyd, as the birds are known, have become the Pretty Prairie couple's pets. "I got a hair brained idea and thought, I wonder what it would be like to raise geese?" explains Ketchem.

It was about a month ago when the city sent Ketchem a letter saying the geese violate a city code, in place for 11 years.

Read the Entire Ordinance

She tried to get the ordinance changed, or get a variance, but the Pretty Prairie City Council denied the request.

Ketchem is now looking for another way to try and keep her pets.

"We felt like was a small country community and felt like we would get more support than what the city is offering us with this," said Ketchem.

Patty Brace, Pretty Prairie City Clerk, tells Eyewitness News, "It wasn't an easy decision to make.They understand that they're attached to them, that they're pets but that didn't change their minds."

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