A retired Cypress, Texas, couple has been sued for as much as $250,000 after feeding geese of their neighborhood.
A neighborhood householders affiliation is suing the couple, George and Kathleen Rowe, for alleged neighborhood rule violations which can be “detrimental to the Subdivision,” the Houston Chronicle reported.
The lawsuit might price the couple as much as $250,000, an quantity that pushed the 2 to place their house available on the market.
“We didn’t have the $250,000, so we have to be prepared in case that’s what it’s going to cost,” stated Kathleen Rowe.
The householders affiliation’s “requested relief” included an order to not feed the geese and reduction that “would not go above $250,000,” based on the Houston Chronicle.
The Rowes’ house has a porch that appears out at a “waterway filled with ducks,” the newspaper stated, and Kathleen stated she believed the geese had been “dumped” within the space with out vital survival abilities.
The couple might now lose the house overlooking the water because the householders affiliation seeks foreclosures on the property.
The householders affiliation’s criticism got here two years after Kathleen’s duck feeding habits started, she stated, and neighbors have since claimed the geese have been the reason for alleged property damages.
Homeowners within the neighborhood have claimed the geese “tear up gardens with their beaks” and have defecated in the neighborhood, the newspaper reported.
Feeding geese and different wildlife is discouraged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service page, and will result in severe issues.
The USDA warns that human food isn’t healthy for animals like geese and huge numbers of geese can pollute waterways with feces, “up to a pound” a day in some circumstances, the web page says.
