Neighbors say petting zoo animals terrorized them. Would a judge listen?

James Altman was a senior magistrate who had worked in Fulton County before retiring to the mountains. He wore glasses and had white hair and a thin beard. Behind his chair were two flags, one for Georgia and one for America, with gold around the edges. He started out friendly and cheerful. That would soon change.

Magistrate court is sometimes called the people’s court, because attorneys aren’t required. This makes more work for judges. They can give leeway to nonlawyers struggling to put on a case, but the law must be followed. Thus, magistrates do a lot of correcting. Sometimes they get fed up.

Did Judge Altman’s treatment of the Guarnieris cross a line? He would later say it did not. The Guarnieris would disagree.

What happened June 2 in magistrate court was noteworthy enough that Fannin County Animal Control director Casey Daniel commented on it at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting. Daniel has taken part in many court proceedings as a public official. The judge’s conduct stood out, Daniel said:

“It was probably the most unprofessional court case I’ve ever been in, in my entire life.”

Loose dogs killed chicken and charged at neighbor’s child, deputy sheriff wrote

Fannin County sits near the middle of Georgia’s northern border. In the misty hills near the county line on U.S. 76, you see a billboard for a local business offering an unusual combination of goods.

“Refills or Reloads,” says the advertisement for McCaysville Drug & Gun. “WE GOT YOU COVERED.”

Downtown Blue Ridge has an upscale coffee shop called Mountain Mama’s and the deep-blue engine of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway. The courthouse is near the tracks. It was getting close to the lunch hour when the Guarnieris presented their case.

“Carry on,” Judge Altman said, “focusing on property damage and nuisance.”

Credit: Thomas Lake

Credit: Thomas Lake

“Yes, sir,” said Courtney Guarnieri, telling a story about the neighboring petting farm’s Great Pyrenees dogs. He said they kept coming over and scattering the trash.

“Yeah, get to the good stuff,” the judge told Mr. Guarnieri, who works as an electrician.

So Mr. Guarnieri told another story. This one was about his wife and their newborn baby and their dog surrounded by the neighbors’ dogs. His wife, Kristy, screamed at them to get away.

The judge made it clear that a civil magistrate can’t order anyone to do anything. He could only award monetary damages up to $15,000.

“What is it you’re expecting me to do about this?” Altman asked Mr. Guarnieri.

This question about the petting farm had occurred to other people, too. One common answer was just to enjoy it. Hooves and Feathers had more than 100 Google reviews, with an average of 4.7 stars. Visitors appreciated the baby goats and the highland cattle. They said the place was great for small children.

Inspectors from the Georgia Department of Agriculture visited the farm in 2024 and 2026. They found no fault with its operations. An official wrote, “All animals appear to be receiving humane care at this time of inspection.”

But the Guarnieris were not the only ones who thought something was amiss. At least two county commissioners had visited the property in response to neighbor complaints.

“And if I could go out there right now and shut ‘em down, I would,” Commissioner Johnny Scearce said at the June 9 county meeting, “because I didn’t like the nastiness, and I didn’t like how those animals looked.”

Daniel, the county’s animal control director, testified about visiting the property “more times than I can count” and writing more than 40 summonses, mostly related to animals running loose. The magistrate court had record of more than half a dozen cases involving Hooves and Feathers proprietor Manuel Marqués and loose animals. Some had been dismissed by prosecutors; at least one was still pending.

Credit: Thomas Lake

Credit: Thomas Lake

“Mr Marques 5 dogs were loose off his property,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in a report for that case, which also involved the Guarnieris. “The dogs mauled & attacked a pig. Killed a chicken & have charged at neighbors child. Marques has been warned multiple times about keeping his animals on his property.”

Marqués pleaded not guilty. A hearing in that case is scheduled for July.

‘Just because somebody complains does not mean we’re doing something wrong’

When his wife, Joi Marqués, first spoke with the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by phone, there was sorrow and exhaustion in her voice. She said they have six children, including a son with cerebral palsy and a daughter who has promised to take care of him for the rest of his life. They bought 38 acres, “a little piece of paradise,” in the hope that their children would build homes there. But that didn’t happen, and the animals kept getting out, and the neighbors kept getting upset.

In follow-up interviews on Thursday, she said the animals are fed and cared for, and get regular veterinary treatment. She added the farm has not had any bulls since March and that multiple incidents in May that neighbors complained about involved a steer, which is castrated and less aggressive.

“Just because somebody complains,” she said, “does not mean we’re doing something wrong.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Lynn Doss, Fannin’s county attorney since 1990, told the AJC that the Hooves and Feathers situation had “fallen through the cracks” of the local and state regulatory framework. Petting farms don’t necessarily need a license if they’re not displaying exotic animals, according to Department of Agriculture spokesperson Matthew Agvent, and Doss said a court ruling had raised questions about a state law on loose livestock. This legal uncertainty added to the perception that the Guarnieris were getting the runaround.

“And I truly get those folks’s frustration,” Doss said. “Because it sounds like nobody’s trying to help them and everybody’s talking in a circle.”

‘Is the fence gonna keep germs from coming across the property?’

The Guarnieris had prepared for their hearing in magistrate court. Kristy Guarnieri said she’d stayed up until 2 the previous night. She had a stack of sheriff’s reports and a thumb drive full of pictures and videos.

“How are you today?” she asked the judge.

“Well, so far so good,” Altman said cheerfully. “I hear there’s a chili dog in my future. That’ll make it even better.”

Several tense exchanges followed. Mrs. Guarnieri wanted to show videos, and the judge asked how long they were. She didn’t know.

“But this has been,” she said, “this has been a year and something of my life.”

“Well,” Altman asked, “is it gonna take me a year and a half to watch the movies?”

No, she said, and the conversation went on like that. The upshot was this: She never got to show any of her video evidence to the judge.

As Mrs. Guarnieri tried to elicit witness testimony from a veterinarian who had treated some of the animals at the farm, the judge wondered aloud what this had to do with property damage or nuisance. Mrs. Guarnieri said that if the animals had diseases that could spread to humans, that could endanger her children.

Credit: Thomas Lake

Credit: Thomas Lake

“Every parent worries about the safety of their children,” the judge said.

“I understand that,” Mrs. Guarnieri said, “but there are, there are two different categories of safety: life-threatening and then normal. As a mother? I’m concerned.”

“I’ve never been a mother,” Altman said.

“Yes, sir,” Mrs. Guarnieri said. “Biologically, you couldn’t be.”

“It would be difficult at best,” Altman said.

A few minutes later, he had a question for Mrs. Guarnieri. If he awarded her $15,000, how would her children be safer?

“Because I could put up a fence,” she said. “That’s how.”

“Is the fence gonna keep germs from coming across the property?” he asked.

“Yes it is, because it’s gonna keep animals out,” she said. “They’re the ones carrying the germs.”

The judge sighed.

“Makes no sense to me,” he said.

Loose bull talk veers to TV questions

With Daniel, the animal-control director, on the stand, Mrs. Guarnieri mentioned a police report about a loose bull. The judge said that would be hearsay and asked if the person in the report was here in court. Mrs. Guarnieri said yes; the bull charged her husband. The judge told her to ask her husband about it.

“OK,” Mrs. Guarnieri said, but then the judge made a dismissive “ah-ah-ah” noise to stop her and reminded her she had a different witness on the stand. And then, instead of letting her continue with that witness, he opened a new line of questioning.

“Do you ever watch television?” he asked.

“No sir, I have a baby at home,” she said. “So I don’t—”

“So, you have a one-year-old baby, and how old are you?” the judge asked. “I usually don’t ask women this question. How old are you?”

“I’m 40,” she said.

“So,” the judge said, “in the 39 years before you had a baby, you never watched television?”

“Yes sir, I have watched TV, but I have not recently, no,” she said.

“There’s an order to how things happen,” the judge said.

As the questioning continued, the judge grew increasingly displeased.

“I have lunch plans tomorrow at 11:30,” he said. “I’d like to make it to them.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Mrs. Guarnieri called her 12-year-old daughter, Stella, to the stand. The girl told of multiple encounters with aggressive dogs.

“Can you safely play in your yard?” her mother asked.

“No, Your Honor,” Stella said.

“Well, that’s a conclusion,” Altman said. “She’s not qualified to answer that question.”

“Well, she knows she—” Mrs. Guarnieri said before the judge interrupted again.

“Next question!” he said.

Around 1 p.m., it was time to wrap up the case.

“I sure hate to say these words,” Altman said. “Do you wanna make a closing statement?”

“Yes sir,” Mrs. Guarnieri said. “I mean—”

“You can either have the first and last word,” the judge said, “and sandwich in your—”

“I’m sorry I have to take up your time,” said Mrs. Guarnieri, cutting in, “but I felt like this was necessary.”

“Do you wanna let me finish my sentence today?” Altman said.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry, sir.”

‘I have never known Judge Altman to be anything but cordial’

Like other judges in the state, magistrates are governed by the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct. It says that during official proceedings, “Judges shall be patient, dignified, and courteous.”

In a phone interview this week, a reporter asked Judge Altman if he’d been patient, dignified and courteous with the Guarnieris.

“I try to be all of those things,” he said. “And I try really hard.”

The reporter asked again if he’d treated the Guarnieris that way.

“Yes,” he said, considering “how I was treated” and “how cases get tried.”

The reporter asked whether or not his frustration had anything to do with getting hungry for lunch.

“No,” he said. “No. Absolutely not.”

In a separate interview, the county attorney was asked about her experiences before this judge.

“I have had Judge Altman rule for me; I have had Judge Altman rule against me,” said Doss, who didn’t attend the magistrate court hearing. “I have never known Judge Altman to be anything but cordial.”

‘Do you interrupt everybody, or just me?’

Altman ruled against the Guarnieris. He noted they hadn’t brought receipts to prove the value of their damages. As for the nuisance claim, he said, “I agree, it’s a nuisance.” But the petting farm was already there when the Guarnieris moved in. Thus, he said, they had moved to the nuisance and they didn’t have a right to complain.

“Now, on the other hand, problem solved,” the judge said. “‘Cause they’re moving.”

Credit: Henry P. Taylor

Credit: Henry P. Taylor

Near the end of the hearing, Marqués told the judge they’d sold the land in Morganton and bought some land in Jasper. The dogs were contained on the porch. They were just waiting for a fence to be built on the new property.

Hooves and Feathers Petting Farm was going away. But for the Guarnieris, the memory of the court hearing lingered. To paraphrase a quote from Maya Angelou, people forget what you say and do. They don’t forget how you make them feel. How did Altman make Kristy Guarnieri feel?

“My existence means nothing to that guy or that court,” she said.

One moment near the end of the hearing seemed to encapsulate this feeling. In her closing statement, she mentioned video footage again.

“It’s your job to show it to me,” Altman said, voice high with impatience.

“Can I show you?” she asked.

“Well, I’ve kind of asked if you have anything else about six times,” he said. “And I’ve asked for a closing statement. But what you’re gonna show me is what you’ve been telling me for the last—”

“Yes sir,” she said, “it’s—”

The judge raised his voice to a new level of volume and urgency.

“Do you interrupt everybody, or just me?” he asked.

“No sir, Your Honor, I’m sorry,” she said. She used a tissue to wipe her eyes.

“I’ve been listening to this for two hours now,” Altman said. “What’s on that video that’s gonna be any different than what you’ve been telling me about?”

She answered in a small voice.

“Because maybe if you see it, you’d care. I don’t know.”

“Maybe I care, even if I don’t see it,” Altman said. “What makes you think I don’t care?”

No one spoke for a moment.

“Don’t answer that,” the judge said.