An Amish man asked to remove livestock from his home to comply with Walker Township zoning ordinances will be allowed to keep a horse on his property, officials said Thursday.
In a letter dated May 24, Walker Township zoning officer Jeffrey Wingert gave Jacob Stoltzfus seven days to remove "all livestock" from his property at 134 Madison Ave. When contacted Wednesday, Wingert had no comment.
But in a news release given to the Centre Daily Times on Thursday, Walker Township officials said "a horse was permitted to remain on the property because that use was grandfathered as to that particular property."
A zoning ordinance adopted by Walker Township in 2000 prohibits residents from keeping livestock in densely populated districts, such as the zone in which Madison Avenue is located.
Stoltzfus has not removed any of the animals from his property, which include five goats and a donkey. He has retained lawyer James Bryant, who said he had not been notified by Walker Township officials that the horse can stay.
"If that's the case, I think we'll be cool with that," he said. "I don't know of any constitutional right to keep a goat."
Bryant is also representing two other Old Order Amish men, Daniel King and Daniel Beiler, who had been ordered to remove horses from their Walker Township properties because of the ordinance. Bryant argues that the ordinance infringes on their religious freedoms.
Centre County Judge David Grine ruled in the King and Beiler case that although the ordinance does infringe on the men's freedom of religion, both had to remove their horses. Similar ordinances in other Pennsylvania counties prohibit the keeping of livestock on less than one acre, Grine wrote in his ruling.
Because King lives on less than one acre, he had to remove his horses from the property. Grine encouraged Beiler, who owns five acres, to seek a variance so he could keep his horses.
Bryant has since asked Grine to clarify his ruling and is awaiting a response.