Laguna Hills HOA Sues Family Over Fence Protecting Beloved Pet Goats

A Southern California family is embroiled in a legal battle with their homeowners association after raising the height of their property fence to protect their pet goats from coyote attacks. 

Earlier this year, the Nellie Gail Ranch HOA filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court attempting to force Steve and Karen Blume to reduce their fence height back to the community’s standard 6-foot limit. 

Nellie Gail Ranch is an affluent community in Laguna Hills, CA, with amenities including an equestrian center, pickleball and tennis courts, and a swim center. The community also features an on-site full-service clubhouse and an online store. 

Homes in the development range between $2.5 million and $5 million. The HOA dispute there began after seven of the Blume family’s goats were killed by coyotes last year. 

“The coyotes were just jumping over the fence and killing my goats,” Steve Blume told CBS News. “It’s a horrible thing to go out there and see your goats ripped apart.” 

Blume initially altered the fence by adding mesh and installing blinking lights. He then topped the fence with a 45-degree angled extension, bringing the total height of the structure to around 9 feet.  

But while the addition successfully kept coyotes out, the HOA says the Blumes failed to seek the necessary approvals to build the structure.

According to the lawsuit seen by Realtor.com®, the HOA first attempted to address the issue with the Blumes in June 2025 and even contracted an architect to meet with the couple in October 2025 to discuss fencing alternatives, but “defendants refused and continue to refuse to modify or remove the non-compliant fencing.”

While the Blumes acknowledge they did not obtain prior approval to erect the taller fence, they argue their actions were a necessary emergency response to protect their animals.

Karen Blume also noted that rules regarding fencing hadn’t been consistently applied, citing nearby tennis courts in the neighborhood that were permitted to have 15-foot-high fences. 

“That is comparing the life of a goat to a tennis ball,” she told CBS News.

A 2020 document outlining Nellie Gail Ranch’s rules and restrictions states that “no fence, hedge, hedgerow, tree, shrub or other landscaping or installation shall be planted, erected or maintained on any Lot in such location or of such height so as, in the opinion of the Committee, to unreasonably obstruct the view from any other Lot upon which ‘a dwelling is constructed in the vicinity thereof.”

But the same document also maintains that animals, including livestock, “must be either kept within an enclosure in an enclosed yard or on a leash being held by a person capable of controlling the animal” and that “the enclosure must be so maintained that the animal cannot escape therefrom.”

A case management conference is set for November.  

HOA’s often have strict rules around animals

The Blumes are hardly the only pet lovers who have done battle with their HOA over their animals. 

An HOA in Cypress, TX, threatened to foreclose on a couple’s home after they were caught feeding ducks in the neighborhood, apparently in violation of HOA code. The couple eventually decided to move rather than continue to fight with the association. 

A couple in Springboro, OH, was sued by their HOA for keeping a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named Arnold Ziffel in their home.

The HOA claimed the animal was livestock and therefore not allowed on the premises, but a magistrate judge ruled that the pig was a “companion animal” and could be kept in the home.