In Biltmore Forest, lawsuit over 12 well-loved cats

BILTMORE FOREST – Even as their grand home stands finished, furnished and waiting for them, Debra and Harry Stonecipher have spent not one night in the 6,700 square foot house they recently renovated, and won’t.

Not without Baby, Dante, Duchess and the nine other well-loved indoor cats they affectionately call their "tribe."

The Biltmore Forest pet ordinance limits animals to three. The Stoneciphers own a dozen cats, all of them indoor felines that are neutered or spayed.

“These are family members, they are not something we would ever consider abandoning or leaving behind,” she said. “The last thing I want to have happen is move into that house with my family and have police show up with some kind of search warrant and try to take them or do something. I’m not prepared to live that way.”

In April, the couple approached the town board, offering to pay a pet fee and vowed, that as their existing pets die, to have no more than six felines. Through documents and their attorney, they explained the cats, most of them rescued from kill shelters, are fed in a downstairs kitchen area and receive top-notch veterinarian care.

In a unanimous vote, the three commissioners rejected the terms without discussion, prompting the couple to file a lawsuit against Biltmore Forest in May.

On Aug. 20, the Stoneciphers sent letters to Biltmore Forest residents they hope to call neighbors, explaining that they are not litigious people, have never filed a suit. They considered selling the house they intended to make their retirement home if their cats are barred, but opted to take legal action after receiving support from community members.

The couple was reported not by an irritated homeowner, but brought the issue to commissioners themselves after discovering the pet limit in reading the code as they neared the end of a 15-month, multimillion dollar home restoration.

They are law-abiding people, Stonecipher said, and wanted to be above-board rather than make a secret of animals they cherish and often discuss with friends and acquaintances.

The existing ordinance likely dates to Biltmore Forest’s 1923 incorporation, Jonathan Kanipe, town administrator, wrote in an email. In his research, he can find no citations or enforcement action being taken against residents who have more than three household pets.

He also does not believe a resident has ever approached the board about a waiver, as the Stonecipher’s have done.

“I certainly would not attempt to speak for the commissioners, but I believe they are comfortable with the town's ordinance as written and did not wish to grant a written waiver in this matter,” he wrote.

A trial date has been set for June, though the Stonecipers hope a mediation will occur long before that date. They and their tribe live in a Buncombe County home.

Among the issues the suit raises is the vague nature of the ordinance, which does not define the types of animals it addresses. Livestock is generally not allowed, but it’s unclear if four hamsters would also run amiss of the rule or if an aquarium full of tropical fish are in violation.

In its more detailed ordinance, Asheville allows homeowners to have six pets, and residents with more can appeal to the animal control officer, who has the authority to raise that number in individual cases.

The Stoneciphers purchased the Biltmore Forest home in September 2014, prompted to move to Asheville where they found a facility that could care for her ailing father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

The area had always piqued her interest, but with her father in need of care, they rushed ahead with their own retirement decision and bought a residence known as the Knight House, completed in 1927 for a founding director of the Biltmore Estate Co.

The town, and its 1,400 residents lies just south of Asheville and to the east of Biltmore Estate. Homes there have a median value of about $900,000.

Along with major repairs to address a wet basement and replacement of systems in the aging house, they refurbished the home to its period. Those architectural renovations prompt a discussion from Stonecipher almost as passionate as a conversation about her beloved tribe. Almost.

Among the lot of cats, the oldest is P.J., a Maine Coon, whose too-quick early growth required titanium pins be implanted in his hips. More recently, he suffered seizures that nearly left him impaired and blind.

Stonecipher credits veterinarians at R.E.A.C.H with his full recovery, and Animal Hospital South doctors with her newest addition, Baby, found as a kitten on a rainy evening in a parking lot near Hendersonville and Mills Gap roads.

Part of his head was scalped and smashed in, she said, but he was brought to the South clinic, which treated him for weeks before trying to rehome him.

“Nobody wanted to take him, maybe because they weren’t sure what they were getting,” Stonecipher said. “They called me because they take care of our cats. I said, ‘If I come and see him, that’ll be it.’”

That was it. Number 12.

The Stoneciphers spent careers in the aerospace industry, and she said she well knows they are fortunate to have been financially successful.

Their donations to causes and charities has long included animal rescues, she said, and excepting this issue, she’s pleased to call the region home.

“We have the intent. We have the means,” Stonecipher said. “We have the time and the patience to take this as far as we need to take it, so we can live in our home with our family, which poses no threat or disruption to anyone.”

Until then, she added, the Knight House will wait.