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Florissant Doesn’t Want to be Like ‘We Bought a Zoo’ Film
By Carol Arnett
The Florissant City Council spend some time at their executive session last week to discuss changing the permit process for unusual animals in the city. In the last several months, the council has had requests from residents for permits to keep a fox, a pig, a duck, and several chickens.
Councilman Joe Eagan said that he was concerned about certain types of animals. “You get one howler monkey, and there goes the neighborhood,” he said.
Council President Keith English said he recently saw the movie, “We Bought a Zoo,” and was reminded of the requests.
Councilman John Grib said the real point of the discussion was that he would like to see the permit process changed. “I would like to see more information on the request,” he said, suggesting with certain animals that there be a drawing and dimensions for any enclosures.
Councilwoman Karen McKay agreed, saying there should be some tweaking of the application. McKay also said that she had no problems with asking the homeowner who wants the animal to go through the neighborhood and asking neighbors to sign that they have no objection to the animal.
City Attorney John Hessel told the council that a moratorium was not necessary. “As it is now, the council gets the request and either acts on it or doesn’t,” he said. He did agree that the permit process needed revision. For example, he said, there is always discussion about what constitutes a domestic animal.
