EAST LAKE — Dozens of geese can be seen from the street outside James Parish's home. The feathered creatures waddle around a fenced-in yard, honking now and then.

The animals seem at peace, but they are causing war.

Next-door neighbors say the geese are ruining their lives. Parish and his wife say they're gentle pets who guard their home.

James and Linda Parish have lived at 1012 E Lake Drive since 1996. When they arrived, the couple decided to use geese for security. They've been "building the flock" to about 50 geese since, Linda Parish said.

Edward and Tracy Kames moved in next door in 2005 and live roughly 75 feet from the property line. They say the Parishes then had only a few geese.

Their neighborhood in unincorporated Pinellas County is a quiet one. The Kameses live on 2 acres and the Parishes on 5.5 acres. Many homes on their street have distance between them, but the Parishes and Kameses are right next to each other.

"When I call people on the phone, they think I live near a zoo," Tracy Kames said.

When the Kames family moved from Chicago, they had hoped to find a quiet place to raise children. Tracy Kames said they were friendly with the Parishes. That soon changed.

In June 2007, James Parish applied for a restraining order against Edward Kames, alleging Kames threatened to kill him.

"We have a flock of geese and chickens which appear to disturb Mr. Kames," his report reads. "The county has told Mr. Kames they cannot have us get rid of the birds and this has made Mr. Kames very angry."

Kames requested a restraining order against Parish five days later.

"I and my family genuinely fear James," the complaint says.

Both requests were denied.

According to the county, the dispute revolves around one issue: The neighborhood is zoned agricultural, which allows multiple animals.

"We cannot make him get rid of those animals," said Todd Myers, director of the county's code enforcement division.

While county laws regulate the number of hoofed animals a resident can have, no rules exist for geese.

The Kameses say they've spent thousands on privacy screens and tall bushes in hopes of lessening the noise, which they say has worsened over the past few years.

"Geese are like dogs. They bark," Edward Kames said. "It just never stops."

Linda Parish said she feels harassed by a constant stream of complaints.

"They've called every county agency they can," she said. "They just go down the list."

Tracy Kames, a stay-at-home mother, acknowledges she has made it her personal mission to get rid of the geese. In March, the Kameses begged county commissioners for help at a meeting.

She has a folder several inches thick filled with printouts of zoning and code enforcement laws and scraps of paper with the phone numbers of everyone she has contacted — Code Enforcement, the Sheriff's Office, the permit office, Animal Control.

"You want to know who somebody is in the county? I've called them," she said. "I'm obsessed with it."

Sheriff's Office records show the Kameses called deputies five times in March.

"Kames advised that her lawyer advised her to call the Sheriff's Office every time the animals became a nuisance to her," a March 16 incident report says.

"Tracy said the geese make loud noise at night. Tracy showed me a video she recorded earlier on her cellphone of the geese making noise," reads a report two days later. "I researched Pinellas County ordinances pertaining to animals and livestock in residential neighborhoods. There was no apparent violation."

All three of Edward and Tracy Kameses' children — a 9-year-old daughter and two 8-year-old sons — sleep in the master bedroom with their parents because the honking scares them, Tracy Kames said.

"He couldn't have 60 dogs," she said. "Why is he allowed to have 60 geese?"

The Parishes say the geese, along with some chickens, a pig and a peacock, are beloved farm pets. Each goose has a name. On a recent afternoon, James Parish cooed at a goose named Peter, saying he's mild and friendly.

"These are our pets," he said. "The neighbors just want to get rid of them to cause us pain."

But the Kameses say noise is the reason for their complaints. "I have a right to be in my home with the windows and doors shut and not hear my neighbor's birds," Tracy Kames said.

Al Wiseman, a retired pilot who lives about two blocks away, said the geese are a blight on the neighborhood.

"It smells when you walk by," he said.

But Judy Riolo, who lives half a mile away, said she loves having the geese in the area.

"They're part of the neighborhood," she said. "Why would you want to get rid of them?"

For Linda Parish, the neighborhood battle is a stressful one.

"I'm retired," she said as the geese honked behind her. "I want to live a peaceful life with my animals."

Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff photographer Douglas R. Clifford contributed to this report. Contact Ayana Stewart at astewart@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8913.