COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene won't tweak its animal ordinance to allow urbanites to own goats.

Allowing the notorious munchers inside city limits opens the door to what other animals could follow in their hoof steps, the General Services Committee decided Monday.

"I'm just not ready to be that guy," said Steve Adams, on being the city councilman who voted in favor of allowing the animal. "In my view they're farm animals, so where do you draw the line?"

The idea of allowing goats in the city's animal ordinance was pitched by dwarf goat-owner and urban farmer Mary Petersen. The animals are smaller than most dogs, don't make noise, make great pets, and are a terrific supply of milk, cheese and garden fertilizer for families like hers that harvest as much of their own food as possible, she said.

In fact, urban gardening is becoming more and more popular, she said, and goats have been domesticated since 9000 B.C.

"So why not the modern age?" she said. "They are domestic animals and they do fit well into our home."

But the General Services Committee said it would be a "slippery slope" opening the door for more animals, and that they received feedback from some of Petersen's A Street neighbors in Coeur d'Alene urging the city not to allow goats.

Mark Avery is one of the those neighbors.

He contacted The Press after Petersen said last month she was going to the city to try and change the rule. He said living next to rural farming can be frustrating for visual and noise reasons, and that's not what people want when they move to town.

"I have nothing against the country lifestyle and think it wonderful if that's what you choose," he wrote the City Council. "But I moved to downtown (Coeur d'Alene) because I want to live in a beautiful tourist city that is well kept and has lots to offer."

Petersen said after Monday's decision at the GSC meeting that she was going to continue to fight for getting dwarf goats the green light for city living.

"They're my children," she said of her three goats. "What would you do?"

Other neighbors of Petersen's said that being next door to goats isn't nearly as bad as living next to a barking dog, nor as dangerous for that matter.

"I'm a neighbor, I see no problem," said Joyce Digovanni. "I don't understand what happened, I really don't. I think (the GSC members) made up their minds before they got here."