VICTORY- It has been said that it all started with the shooting of two wayward pigs- the fued that has lingered in the small Northeast Kingdom town of Victory since the 1930's. Now, things have gotten so out of hand, the town needs law enforcement present at every public gathering.
Because of Town Meeting day's failed budget, 42 of the towns 62 residents filled the town hall to re-vote Sunday. The $483,000 budget was easily passed by oral voting style.
But one thing residents were not able to vote on was a decision that could affect the future of the non-profit Elizabeth Brown Humane Society, run by Victory resident, Patricia Mitchell.
Established in 2010, the Humane Society currently cares for 52 livestock animals, consisting of rabbits, goats, a llama, mini horses, a donkey, chickens, horses, sheep, and an alpaca. The 200-acre property consists of a barn which houses the animals, and a house that Mitchell rents to her son, Walter Mitchell Jr., and his family. Neither infrastructure is forced to pay property tax.
It wasn't until 2014 that town officials such as selectboard member, Ferne Loomis, found the tax exemption on the house to be an issue.
"We did vote that the barn and the land that the animals are housed on will not be taxed", Loomis, 71, said. "But the house has to pay taxes."
But previous selectboard memeber and friend of the Mitchells said, "They want them to pay taxes on a non-profit and come up with more money that they don't have anyways and I think that's totally wrong."
Last year, town officials ruled that since Mitchell Jr. and his family reside in the house, it should not be exempt from taxation, charging the Mitchell's about $2,000 dollars annually.
Mitchell sued the town in Essex Superior Court, requesting to have the the tax exemption reinstated.
"We run on a very limited budget, said Mitchell, "everything we do here is volunteer, we live off of donations and a lot of hard work, an extra couple thousand dollars would just totally put us under."
Opponent's say the Mitchell's organization does not work like a Humane Society should.
"The animals need to be adopted out and the society needs to be more active," said Loomis. "It's more like pets, is how I feel."
"I treat them like my pets," said Mitchell, and explained that the majority of her animals have "seen better days." She says that she wouldn't feel comfortable allowing a family with children to adopt them.
"There's just some animals that are unsuitable if you talk to any humane society. Just look at Charlie [donkey]. He's 23 years old. He doesn't have to go anywhere. He can stay here. I have a 16 year old goat and the average age for a goat is 10. So to adopt a male neutered goat out, who serves no purpose, will only get him in trouble."
A court case to settle the property tax decsion is underway- that keeps Mitchell's husband, Walter Mitchell, the minority member on the three person selectboard from commenting on the matter. Although he did say, "A lot of the stuff going on is vendetta because they don't like certain people and certain things."
During the town meeting, voters shot down the proposal to expand the selectboard from three members to five. Loomis thought this was a good outcome because, "The families are so related around here, it would end up all one family and it would be the families running the town."
Even though the town meeting did get contentious at times, it ended without incident or arrests.