Charlottesville Goat Justice League Position Statement: "We would like to ask Charlottesville City Council to amend City Code to allow residents to keep up to 3 pet goats at their residence. The Code would stipulate that these goats must be miniature (under 100 lbs), any males neutered, all dehorned and nursing offspring allowed until the age of 12 weeks. We feel that city residents should be able to provide milk for their own use from their own land. Goats eat invasive plant species, require very little land, and provide highly nutritious milk. A number of progressive cities in the U.S. have recently enacted such code, including St. Paul, Austin, Berkley, Oakland, Portland, and Seattle. We propose basing our code on that of Seattle.

The current Charlottesville ordinance pertaining to goats is Section 4-9: "No goats shall be kept within the city". In July, 1975, a person wrote to City Council about a goat in the neighborhood and asked for a committee to prohibit farm animals from the city. There are no specifics in the record about the alleged crimes of this purported goat. The article was recodified in 1976 at which time the section prohibiting goats was added. There have been no changes or additions pertaining to goats in city code since 1976. City Code pertaining to goats is antique and needs to be updated to reflect modern sensibilities about sustainability.

In support of Council's vision of Charlottesville as a green city, we feel this ordinance change is a simple step we could take in our march towards sustainability."