BARNESVILLE, Minn. - Eric and Jeana Lanum filed a petition with the City Council on Monday supporting a change to the city's pet ordinance so they can keep their pair of 1-year-old Pekin ducks.
The city's pet ordinance only allows dogs, cats, gerbils, hamsters and caged birds.
"We're not just doing this for ourselves," Jeana Lanum said. There are other people with animals not included in the city's ordinance that are at stake, she said.
The petition was accepted pending review by the city clerk.
"We're not taking any action tonight," Mayor Ken Bauer said.
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Minutes after the Lanums turned in their petition with 267 signatures, another petition was submitted by Barnesville residents Wendi Duphorn and Nita Fenner, asking council members to leave the city ordinance as it is.
Duphorn said she and Fenner gathered 130 signatures in about two weeks. "I was going to keep out of it, but hearing blows towards the city were enough," she said of public feedback on the duck debate.
Fenner said she was concerned that allowing ducks as pets could potentially spread disease. She questioned the Lanums' care for Winnie and Babbles. After leaving City Hall, Fenner wondered what the Lanums do with the ducks' waste and if the ducks are immunized.
Bauer told Duphorn and Fenner that the signatures on their petition also need verification.
The Lanums, who moved to Barnesville from Fargo in the spring, have raised Winnie and Babbles since they hatched. "I love my animals like my own kids, and they'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands before I give them up," Lanum wrote in a letter to the city.
Since learning of the city's pet ordinance, the Lanums have pushed for a revamped pet ordinance. But the City Council voted 5-1 in June against changing the ordinance.
City officials gave the Lanums a deadline to get rid of Winnie and Babbles, but it has since passed and the ducks are still living with the Lanums.
Bauer said last month it's unclear what steps could be taken if the pet ordinance is not followed, saying the city needs to seek legal advice to answer that question.
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Jeana Lanum said "it's a waiting game to see" what the council decides.
The council could revisit the pet ordinance in September.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Benny Polacca at (701) 241-5504
