Life as a Long Island backyard livestock keeper

Everywhere that Lisa Fitz went, her lamb was sure to go — until it outgrew diapers.

Clover, the name Fitz gave the farm animal, came from a litter of two lamblings born at an East End farm where she once worked. Unable to walk, whether due to a mineral deficiency or a birth defect, the lamb was rejected by her mother, said Fitz, 41. Without intervention, she said the lamb would have died.

“I started taking her home at night and bottle feeding her,” said Fitz, a former nurse’s aide who now manages a goat breeding farm in Riverhead.

Clover lived inside Fitz’s Southold home for more than a year, making “an amazing recovery,” she said. With a herd mentality, Clover stayed by Fitz’s side “much like a dog,” she said.

The animal parked itself under the dining room table hoping for scraps during a meal, snuggled up against her on the couch or slept in her bed. When Clover got too large for the bed, she started sleeping in a nearby extra-large dog bed.

All the while, Fitz said she kept Clover in diapers, which she would sometimes change 10 to 12 times a day.

“When I first brought her home, she started in size five infant diapers, and we worked our way up through pull-ups, and finally she was in men’s Depends,” she said. Getting Clover into diapers was a challenge.

“She was much like a toddler,” said Fitz, who shares her home with boyfriend Bill Wilkinson, 47, a paramedic. “When it was time to change her diaper, the chase was on. But once you had her, she just stood there.”

When Clover got too big for diapers, Fitz said she made the decision to move her outside.

Clover was Fitz’s first backyard beast. Now 3 and weighing about 150 pounds, she shares the one-acre property with lots of friends, including 10 goats and 12 chickens, all of which have names just like a household dog, cat or hamster. Clover is “extremely friendly, loves people, loves snacks.” And, in Fitz’s words, she is spoiled. “Her favorite treats are blueberries and animal crackers,” she said.

While many homeowners on Long Island and elsewhere started keeping chickens in their backyards during the pandemic, some moved on to bigger creatures, taking in livestock such as sheep, but also goats, pigs and donkeys.

Farm animals offer benefits, including obvious uses such as clearing weeds and producing milk. But for many, they also provide companionship.

“They certainly do develop their own personalities,” said Michael Fiorentino, natural resource program team leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County in East Meadow. “And people become attached to them.” That’s particularly true for those who have reared an animal from a young age, as Fitz did with Clover, blurring the line between farm animal and prized pet, he said.

KNOW THE RULES

Most farm animals are restricted by municipalities in Nassau County, Fiorentino said. Some allow for chickens or other types of poultry under certain conditions such as required property setbacks, he added.

In Hempstead Town, for example, swine, goats, sheep, lambs, horses and other animals are prohibited without an exception from the Board of Appeals.

Regulations may be more accommodating for farm animals in some Suffolk municipalities.

In Islip Town, keeping farm animals as pets is not prohibited, according to an email from town spokeswoman Caroline B. Smith. But depending on the type, it may qualify as a wild animal and could be prohibited, she said.

In Riverhead Town, still home to many active farms, anyone who wants to keep a farm animal as a pet in a backyard would need to adhere to local regulations, such as a requirement to confine one that is in heat to avoid “a public nuisance,” according to an email from Heather Trojanowski, a town planner.

“The first thing that people have to do if they want to have livestock is to see if it’s permitted in their township,” said Karen Kazel, livestock coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank.

If would-be animal owners don’t check local laws, they can end up with a larger problem if neighbors complain to the town over quality-of-life issues such as smells, pests, rodents or noise, said Kazel, who has owned sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, ducks, chickens and turkeys at her former farm in Yaphank. “We get calls all the time from frantic people trying to find a home for a rooster, which is very difficult to find a home for, or goats,” she said. “It’s just terrible. People are crying on the phone. These animals are part of their family.”

Farm animals should be fenced in, provided an outdoor shelter, have enough room to graze and exercise and be paired with other animals of their species, she said. Having a livestock veterinarian is important, she added, pointing out that they’re “few and far between” on Long Island for vaccinations and other animal care.

Fiorentino, who raises goats at his Suffolk County home, suggests finding a vet that specializes in large animals. “If they’re searching, they may have better luck researching equine veterinarians, since there are more horses in Nassau County compared to other livestock,” he said. “Even if they contact a veterinarian who doesn’t serve backyard livestock, they may provide referrals for them.”

The time commitment should also be a consideration, according to Kazel. “It’s a commitment for 15 years if they get a goat or a sheep,” she said.

700-POUND PET PIG

Ralphie, Smithtown resident Kristen Latuga’s pet pig, is 7 years old and weighs 700 pounds. He came home with the special education math teacher to her more than one-acre property at 6 weeks old.

Latuga, 42, often takes him out on a leash, drawing attention during special appearances at Brentwood High School, where she works, and for trick-or-treating on Halloween in her neighborhood.

Pigs grow fast, Latuga said, and when Ralphie’s weight climbed to 300 pounds while living in her house, she said she thought, “Are you gonna fall through the floor?”

Latuga said she often takes in stray piglets like Ralphie, nursing them to health until she can rehome them elsewhere. Ralphie was the runt of a litter at a pig breeding farm in Ohio. (The owner heard that Latuga was looking for a piglet after her beloved pig Brucie died, putting Ralphie on a plane and flying him to New York, said Latuga, who paid about $300 for the plane ticket.)

She also owns a miniature donkey, named Sweet Willie, who is 14 years old. She keeps Willie at a friend’s home in Smithtown, where he lives with a miniature horse, Fig, who just turned 20 and for whom Latuga is helping to foot the bills.

THE COST

Caring for the equines is an expense she said she’s happy to cover.

Monthly, Latuga pays about $50 for hay bales, $64 for shavings, $90 for vet care for Willie and Fig. Annual costs for bloodwork and dental are anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500, she said. 

She gets up at 2:45 a.m. every morning “to clean and feed everybody” at her house, including the foster piglets, and then heads to care for the donkey and horse by 3:30 a.m., she said. She’s on the road for work by 6:15 a.m., returning later to her friend’s house to see Willie and Fig again and put out fresh water and clean up after them, she said.

Latuga said she struggles to find veterinary care for the pigs. The mother of one piglet had crushed her piglet’s hoof, and Latuga, who is now fostering the baby animal, said she had to send it to North Carolina for surgery.

Not only adorable, pigs are some of the smartest animals in the world, Latuga said. Like dogs, pigs roll over for belly rubs, learn tricks and nudge on their owner’s leg when they want attention. Although they can “get into trouble” by rooting through garbage cans, cabinets and anywhere else they smell food, pigs can be potty trained to go outside, she said.

“I like to take animals from crummy situations and give them a better life, especially when the pigs are bred to be meat pigs,” she said.

GOATS CLOWN AROUND

Jessica Martin, 39, brought home two goats last fall to clear poison ivy and other overgrowth from her Islip Terrace property, which covers nearly an acre. They were being given away by someone on Long Island who bought them during the pandemic and could no longer care for them, she said.

Naming them Rita and Janet after the granny characters in the cartoon “Bluey,” the 50-pound goats, one white and one tan and white, have since become the clowns of the family, which includes her husband, Christopher, 39, an elevator mechanic, their three young daughters, two dogs, eight chickens and 29 ducks.

“The goats are crazy,” said Jessica Martin, explaining that they chase one another around the yard. They also headbutt, not only one another, but Martin’s mixed breed dogs, Murph and Wyatt, who “don’t like” the play, she said. The goats get something akin to the zoomies, like dogs do, but their version is “jumping midair and doing flips and head butting each other,” she said.

In good weather, she said the animals sleep on the Martins’ deck, sometimes atop their outdoor furniture. 

In the winter, the goats sleep outdoors in a three-sided shelter, growing a heavier coat that she said they rub off on all surfaces come spring. “It looks like there’s spider webs everywhere,” Martin said.

EGGS, MILK AND MANURE

The goats provide dung for Martin’s garden compost, as do the chickens, which, along with the ducks, also provide eggs and eat ticks and spotted lantern flies on the property. She said she plans to keep the goats fertile so that she can milk them.

Martin offers gardening, baking and homesteading gatherings and classes, mostly in her yard, and she runs a stand where next year she hopes to expand her offerings with honey. She recently welcomed beehives someone gave her to the family’s “microfarm.” Her classes are aimed at helping children and their families connect with nature and the community, a mission that’s as much professional as personal, she said.

Raising her children with farm animals provides a childhood Martin said she didn’t have growing up in densely populated East Meadow.

“They’re not really scared of anything,” she said. “It’s more natural, like they’re barefoot all the time. They really never get sick,” she said. “I wish I would have learned this as a kid instead of having to self-teach myself in my 30s.”