Neighbors war over manure pile visible via Google Earth

NEW BRUNSWICK, Canada – Good fences make good neighbors, so long as that fence isn't made of manure, apparently.

A Canadian couple has been awarded $15,000 in damages, to be paid by neighbors who have also been banned by the judge's Jan. 19 decision from spreading manure within about 1,000 feet of David and Joan Gallant's property.

The Calgary Herald reports the Gallants bought their place in rural New Brunswick in 2001. Between then and November 2013, things went south with their Indian Mountain neighbors, Lee and Shirley Murray.

The Gallants alleged that in that month, load upon load of "fresh, unseasoned, wet, raw manure" was dumped by the Murrays onto land adjacent to their own property.

To get a sense of scale, there was enough of it that it was visible via a Google Earth photo. The Gallants say nearly an entire year passed before they complained to the New Brunswick Farm Practices Review Board. A short time later, the manure pile was removed.

But when the board in December 2014 determined the manure positioning was an "unacceptable farming practice," the Gallants alleged the Murrays retaliated in the form of a long scratch on their car.

Early the next year, the Gallants sued, outlining a litany of other alleged transgressions, including rocks forced onto their land via a snowblower. The Murrays say they will appeal.

America isn't free from its own manure-related debacles. WJAR reported in September on a tussle between Rhode Island neighbors. Gerald Zarrella had been hosting weddings on his Exeter property, and claimed his neighbors dumped chicken manure near it in retaliation. The neighbors were ordered to move the manure.

(Horse manure is at the heart of a legal dispute over religious freedom.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Neighbors War Over Manure Pile Visible via Google Earth

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