SoCal HOA sues family for protecting their pets from nighttime invaders

After watching coyotes repeatedly invade their property and kill seven beloved goats, one Orange County family says it finally found a way to keep the predators out, only to end up in a legal fight with its homeowners association.Steve and Karen Blume, who live on a one-acre property in Nellie Gail Ranch in Laguna Hills, are being sued by their HOA after Steve raised the backyard fence beyond the community’s six-foot height limit without first getting approval.“The coyotes were just jumping over the fence and killing my goats,” Steve Blume told CBS.“It’s a horrible thing to go out there and see your goats ripped apart.”Desperate to stop the attacks, Blume first added mesh, increasing the fence from six feet to eight feet.When the coyotes still got in, he installed blinking lights.That didn’t work either.His final modification finally ended the problem.“I put a 45-degree angle at the top of the fence, which made it about nine feet high, and that completely kept the coyotes out of the yard,” he said.The successful fix, however, also landed the family in court.Blume acknowledged he never sought HOA approval before making the changes, but said he was dealing with an emergency after losing seven pets.He also argued that other laws require him to protect his animals.The family said they are also baffled that a nearby tennis court fence on their property is permitted to stand as high as 15 feet to keep tennis balls from rolling down a hill, while their coyote barrier has become the subject of a lawsuit.“That is comparing the life of a goat to a tennis ball,” Karen Blume told CBS.

“It doesn’t make any sense.”In a statement, the HOA said it tried to reach a compromise before filing suit, claiming the Blumes “refused to make any changes to the non-compliant fence and have declined to participate in mediation.”The Blumes said the options proposed by the HOA would cost thousands of dollars.The association is now asking a judge to order the famil...