Too many pets rattle the cage
HOA puts limit on household animals
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers DOGGONE RULES- Brad Wear and his son George, 10, hope to convince the Lake Sherwood Homeowners Association to change the rules so they can keep their beloved German shepherds, from left, Sophie, 13; Duke, 1, and Marley, 4 months.

Time is running out for Sophie, Duke or Marley of Lake Sherwood. By next week, unless a waiver is granted, one of the dogs will have to leave the family that loves them.

Sophie is a 14-year-old German shepherd with an inoperable tumor.

"Sophie is very sick, she stays inside and she does not have long to live," said Brad Wear, a Lake Sherwood resident and the dog's owner.

The family wants to keep multiple dogs, but has been told by their homeowner association that they can't.

According to the Sherwood Valley Homeowners Association rules and regulations, pet ownership is limited to three pets, only two of which can be dogs. Residents can have two dogs and a cat, three cats, or similar combinations of other typical household pets. The way the rule reads, Wear said, caged birds and fish in tanks or ponds are also limited to three. By contrast, the residents of nearby Thousand Oaks are allowed to have as many as three dogs.

Wear and his wife, Susan Estes, feel the restriction is unfair.

Because of Sophie's condition, a counselor for the family's two children suggested adding puppies to the household in advance of Sophie's inevitable euthanasia. A pair of littermates, Annabelle and Duke, were brought into the home, but both German shepherd puppies were believed to have hip dysplasia, a genetic disorder.

Annabelle had to be put down due to this crippling medical condition. It looks as though Duke may suffer the same fate. While the family waits for more information on Duke's condition, the breeder provided the family with another puppy, Marley.

Carol Stephenson, the homeowner association general manager, sent a letter to Estes on July 18 demanding that she limit the number of dogs her family has to the two allowed by the HOA's Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. She was given 21 days to remedy the situation.

"This has all been very heartbreaking," Wear said. "Then we get this callous letter from the homeowners association. We were shocked."

"We have no comment. We are governed by CC&Rs and we follow them," Stephenson said.

Estes responded July 20 with a letter to Stephenson and the HOA asking for adequate time for the family to deal with the dogs' medical conditions. She explained that Sophie is confined to the house and said the pets' conditions have deeply saddened the family.

She also said that although "ignorance is never an argument," she and her husband were not aware they were only allowed to have two dogs. That is partly because many of their neighbors have more than two dogs, said Wear, who knows of one prominent member of the community who has six dogs. He also wonders how many pets are owned by the members of the HOA board, the people who would hear the case.

"We've been singled out," Wear said.

"One of their dogs is very old and doesn't do anything," said John Dwight, who lives next door to the family.

Thousand Oaks is served by Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control through its shelter in Agoura Hills.

Wear is looking for others in the Lake Sherwood area who are interested in helping him petition the HOA for a waiver so the family can keep all its dogs.

Two people who were interviewed separately for this article called The Acorn back, asking that their names not be used.

One person said she supported Wear, but was afraid of being the target of harassment if her name appeared in print.