Today, the goats -- Princess Leia and Yoda (the third goat, named Surprise, recently died) -- rarely make a sound like the one that unnerved the neighbors.  There are no county codes that address allowable pets in Suffolk or Nassau. Most wild animals are prohibited by New York State law, but otherwise, pet ownership regulations are left to individual towns and villages. Many, like Smithtown, for example, have codes for horses and dogs but not for other farm animals.  Some say there is greater interest these days in owning animals that were once seen only on farms.  "I think there is a trend" toward owning farm animals, said Tabitha Haubold, the animal science program manager for Suffolk County Farm, part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.  "There's a conflict of interest with the loss of land," she said, referring to the fast pace of residential development on former farmland. "It's kind of like Long Island is trying to hold onto its heritage."  Many pet owners come to see Ms. Haubold at the farm, where she counsels new owners of goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, pigs or chickens, among others, in caring for their animals.  With 10 years of experience on the Suffolk educational farm and having grown up with horses in Manorville, Ms. Haubold knows a lot about animals. She herself owns 16 llamas. She shows them professionally and makes yarn from their fiber, she said.  There are more than 100 llamas and alpacas, which are smaller, on Long Island, Ms. Haubold estimated, and many more pigs, goats, sheep, chickens and roosters living, often as pets, in residential neighborhoods. One Nassau County woman has two kangaroos, she said, and a Port Jefferson man has four reindeer. A Huntington couple has Shetland sheep, and a West Hills woman has an enormous pig.  Complaining neighbors are an issue not only for residential pet owners, but for farmers as well. As luxury developments pop up adjacent to farmland, city folk who move to the country often find adapting difficult.  Marsha Kenny moved from Brooklyn to a house that bordered a farm in the town of Southampton in the 1970's. A fire lane ran past her Brooklyn home, but she slept easily through the blaring sirens, traffic and city street noise, Ms. Kenny said.  It was the East End farmer's rooster, crowing at the crack of dawn, that interrupted her sleep. "I think a lot of people go through the same experience," Ms. Kenny said. "And some adapt to it." Other farm neighbor complaints have arisen from fertilizer smells, pesticide spraying and the sounds than come from certain farming techniques.  "The No. 1 complaint we get against farms is just the noise," said Stephen Frano, code enforcement officer for the Town of Southampton. "A lot of the crop farmers will use an air cannon -- it sounds like a shotgun. They set it off in the middle of the field, and it keeps the crows and birds away from the crops."  Since the 1990's, developers have built homes on former small horse farms lost to the Island's soaring housing market. Now, a horse farm in Southampton must sit on at least 10 acres, and ordinances regulate how often manure must be carted away.  Farther west, in Medford, Dianne Soja has operated Whispering Pines, a stable where she keeps 20 horses, gives riding lessons and trains horses for equestrian events, for 18 years. Ten years ago, the property she leased was sold to a developer, who then built a residential development. Ms. Soja moved her horses to a property five blocks away.  But now, the owner of that property is also selling the land to developers, she said. Ms. Soja has offered to buy it but said another buyer had outbid her. Ms. Soja is not sure what she will do. It seems pointless to move elsewhere on Long Island, she said, with diminishing open space and such high returns for property owners who sell to developers.  If Long Island's housing market continues to soar, it is likely that farms and animal owners will face more complaints from neighbors unaccustomed to country life. But suburbanites who want to own farm animals as pets may soften the trend.  "I feel there are an increasing number of people who are trying to reconnect to their agricultural roots," Ms. Haubold, the Suffolk County Farm educator, said. "Parents who grew up in a farm-type atmosphere or grew up on Long Island when there were farms want to share that with their kids."  Susan Goldstein grew up in nearby Deer Park. Her grandmother owned a chicken farm in East Islip, and her aunt and uncle had goats and chickens.  For Ms. Goldstein, living in Suffolk County means having space to keep animals. Besides the goats, the family has two dogs, a cat and two parrots. Her daughter Rachel, 17, likes to feed the goats, and 7-year-old Iliza hopes to join a 4-H club and show the animals when she is older.  Gary Goldstein said he understands his neighbor's frustration during the goat weaning. But he said he doesn't complain when a neighbor's barking dog wakes him in the middle of the night.  "This is the suburbs," he said at the dining room table in the high-ceilinged house that he renovated himself. "People come out here to be in the country, to have space, to have trees, to have dogs. But if you're going to be in suburbia, you're going to hear barking dogs. If you don't want that, why do you come here?"
Suffolk and Nassau Counties, NY, have no codes that address allowable pets; New York State law bars ownership of most wild animals; all other pet ownership rules are left to towns and villages, which may be facing rise in interest in owning farm animals; complaining neighbors are issue for both residential pet owners and farmers; photo (In the Region/Long Island) (M)