Jeff Green | Jul 16, 2015


It was a year ago when Brian Skillen came to Central Frontenac Council to fight for the right to keep his two miniature horses, Tommy and Teddy, on his Clarke Road property near Arden.

The horses are well known in the Arden/Tamworth/Tweed corridor through their appearances at public events, and their visits to seniors' homes.

However, they ran afoul of the township because Skillen's residential lot is under the 10 acre minimum for housing livestock, and a complaint, lodged by his neighbour, brought this to the attention of the township and its bylaw officer.

Skillen was ordered to move Tommy and Teddy at that time, but council relented and an accommodation was found. The Ministry of the Environment determined there was no impact of the horses on wells or groundwater, which was the neighbour's concern, and the township held the bylaw enforcement at bay as it considered fine tuning the bylaw.

Fine tuning the bylaw is not likely to take place soon, however, since the township is waiting for Frontenac County to finalize its Official Plan before starting to update its own, a process that will likely take another year or two.

Earlier this spring, a complaint was lodged against a family in Mountain Grove who were raising pigs at a property within the hamlet, bringing the issue of the 10 acre minimum lot size for livestock back before Council.

On June 9, then CAO Jim Zimmerman gave a report to council asking that the township either “adopt a consistent, fair and objective enforcement of the existing by-law, or instruct staff to not enforce the existing by-law under any circumstances ... “

Council chose to enforce the existing bylaw, which meant that not only did the Mountain Grove pigs need to be moved, but the Skillen horses, as well as four goats at a property outside of Mountain Grove, were also to be revisited.

According to Central Frontenac Clerk Cathy MacMunn, the situation with the pigs has been resolved, and a solution for the goats “is being worked on”.

As far as Timmy and Tommy are concerned however, the jig seems to be up.

“Here it is,” said Brian Skillen, as he produced a document signed by Ken Gilpin, the township's bylaw officer, ordering the horses off the property by July 20.

“I'm pretty fed up with the township,” he said. “Nothing has changed since last year when the Ministry of the Environment and the Health Unit and all the rest of them came here and said they weren't causing any problems, but now they want them gone.”

Unlike last year, Skillen is not planning to go before Council to ask for a reprieve.

“I'm not going back to them,” he said, pointing to a For Sale sign in front of his house. “I'm trying to sell the property anyway, not because of the township, but they don't help matters much, I can tell you that. All I want is for them to let me keep the horses here until I sell.”

Skillen said that he is concerned that if Tommy and Teddy are taken away they will not survive the ordeal.

“They need specific care because they are miniature horses,” he said. “If you put them on grass they wouldn't survive very long. One way or another I'll make sure they are cared for.”

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