New Iberia farmer and business owner Mike Romero is facing a charge by the city of New Iberia for, he believes, acting to protect his animals on his own property.

Romero is scheduled to appear Nov. 10 in New Iberia City Court. He is being charged for “the offense of illegal enclosure of livestock and failure to obtain a permit for livestock.”

When Hurricane Rita struck the Louisiana coast in September 2005, Romero lost all of his feed and hay, and saw his calves drown on his property on David Dubois Road, less than half-a-mile form the Port of Iberia.

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This experience, in Romero’s words, turned things around. He built a hill out of sand on his property to provide a refuge for his animals in the event of flooding, and purchased a shipping container to provide an elevated storage area for feed and hay.

“I’ll never have this happen again,” Romero said. “I’ll never watch calves drown like that.”

When Hurricane Gustav approached in August, Romero decided to bring his five cows and four calves to the SugArena, which was serving as a shelter for local farmers to care for their animals during the storm.

“When we got there for Gustav they had a few animals there, but they wouldn’t let us or anyone else in,” Romero said.

Romero then moved his animals to his business, Romero’s Electric Motor Service, at 307 S. Lewis St.

“The minute the floodwaters receded we brought them back to the farm,” Romero said.

The following week, with the approach of Hurricane Ike, Romero brought his animals to the SugArena a day early but said he was turned away again as staff there had stopped accepting animals. So, again he brought his animals, now including five cows and five calves, to his Lewis Street property.

After the animals were taken to his Lewis Street property and secured, Romero said Tim Vice, compliance officer for the city of New Iberia, informed him he could not have the animals on property within the city limits.

Romero said he left his property and returned to find an Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy there to issue him a citation for the charge of “animals at large.”

“That’s a bad charge because the animals were not at large but penned up,” Romero said, adding Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal then instructed the deputy not to charge Romero as the parish was under a state of emergency at the time. Ackal was unavailable for comment at press time.

About a week later, however, Romero was charged, this time by the city of New Iberia, with “failure to obtain a proper permit.”

“It’s not like I was looting or committing a crime,” Romero said. “I was just trying to save my animals, some of which were assigned to my nephew Avery Kingman for 4-H. He is grandson of Frank Minville, who is president of Cajun Co-op.”

Romero denies Mayor Hilda Curry’s claim he was warned during Hurricane Gustav about keeping his animals on his Lewis Street property, claiming he was not notified until the emergency for Ike was declared more than one week after Gustav.

“She told me that Tim Vice had told me that during Gustav, but that is not true,” Romero said.

“They didn’t talk to me during Gustav.”

Curry said city officals were made aware of the cattle being there during Gustav, but it was too late to require him to move the cattle at that point.

“Someone in my office said that he (Romero) said I had given him permission to leave the cattle there, but that was absolutely incorrect,” Curry said.

“After the storm he removed the cattle from the property and Tim Vice went to his business and informed his son that this is not acceptable and cannot be done again in the future. Cattle cannot be housed anywhere in the city by city ordinance. It is very disruptive to the neighbors.”

Vice said Romero was properly warned prior to landfall of Hurricane Ike.

“He was warned after the first time, so for the second time, for Ike, he definitely knew,” Vice said.

“We went there to encourage him to move his animals prior to the second hurricane, but he never did.”