Pro-Wrestling Suburban smackdown Page Pro-Wrestling Suburban smackdown Page
Last updated 5 March 2005
In this town, the rules say five animals, only....but Hulk Hogan plays host to Lilly the Rooster and up to two dozen other critters. Neighbors cry foul.
BELLEAIR - You could blame a relentless rooster named Lilly.
Or perhaps two chihuahuas and a maltese who happen to be registered members of the Screen Actors Guild.
You could even trace it back to the six dogs, three French hens, two cats, 11 other birds, five tortoises, two chinchillas, two ferrets, two iguanas, two rabbits and two toxic frogs who once lived on the 2.3-acre spread of suburbia that pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan calls home.
Whatever you blame, one thing is clear: Hulk and his family are embroiled in an emotional smackdown with Belleair officials and some neighbors, who say the animals have taken over the block.
Al Raeford, a gardener for Hulk's next-door neighbor, can't take Lilly's constant crowing.
"That drives me crazy and, I'm telling you, I was raised on a farm," he said.
But Hulk, 51, and his family believe they are the victims. His wife became so upset at a public hearing this week she described officials with a choice expletive - a scene captured by the family's own film crew.
"We're trying to live our life here and get along," said Hulk, whose real name is Terry Bollea, "and they're hell-bent on trying to get rid of our animals."
Neighbors have sporadically complained ever since Lilly came on the scene.
The Bolleas adopted him several years ago as a science project for daughter Brooke, now 16. They thought Lilly was just a cute, fuzzy chicken at first, before they realized she was a he.
"By the time it started to crow, I went to the city and explained the situation," said Linda Bollea, who received a domestic fowl permit in January 2000. Things intensified last spring after the town received a letter from an attorney for Bollea's next-door neighbors, Mary and Marshall Rinker, saying the animals were a nuisance, smelly and dangerous to their health.
Town leaders ordered inspections in July, August and December, which found as many as 14 animals - although different inspectors saw different creatures.
At a Dec. 6 code enforcement meeting, Linda Bollea said the family owned 25 animals.
The town code allows only five.
The code enforcement board gave the Bolleas until Feb. 7 to comply.
Nobody, the Bolleas say, understands their situation. Their two chihuahuas, Foxy and Star, and their maltese, Cookie, actually reside at the family's Clearwater beach house, the couple said. They said the dogs, which are registered with the Screen Actors Guild, only visit the Belleair home, to film an upcoming TV show they're shooting about a celebrity family living in suburbia.
None of that matters to Town Manager Steve Cottrell.
"I don't think our code speaks to visitation of pets on a continuing basis," he said.
The Bolleas said the town is targeting them because of their celebrity status.
"We're trying to blend in and not push our celebrity on the community, and it's almost like they have nothing better to do but to pry into our lives," Linda Bollea, 45, said.
But a few in the neighborhood said it's high time the famous wrestler and his family follow the law.
Raeford, the Rinker's gardener, said his bosses have been tortured by the incessant cackling, crowing and barking.
"These people are too nice to go through this," said Raeford of his employers, who both suffer from debilitating illnesses. "The whole neighborhood is scared of them and it's just not right."
Edwin "Doc" Friesen, neighborhood association president, and his wife, Luckey, said the Bolleas' dogs chase after them as they stroll along the path to the association marina.
"Even the rooster will run right along the fence crowing and having a good ol' time," Luckey Friesen said.
The Bolleas, determined to go to the mat for their animals, hired an attorney, Paul S. Maney, who calls the town code "vague and overbroad."
Section 10-2 of the code reads: "No person shall keep or maintain upon any residential property within the town more than a total of or any combination of five domestic animals at any one time."
Maney and the Bolleas said the code implies that each person can have five animals. So, since the Hogans live with their two teenage kids, they were well within the guidelines.
Town officials and members of the code enforcement board admit that Belleair's animal codes should be clarified.
Still, the Bolleas agreed to cut back to six - four dogs, a bird and Lilly, which they said shouldn't count because of the permit.
On Feb. 7, the latest official inspection, investigators witnessed six animals on the property.
This week, a St. Petersburg Times reporter saw a few animals on the Bolleas' property that inspectors didn't note: an orange cat, a black cat and a blackish chicken.
A code enforcement meeting was scheduled for Wednesday to determine if the Bolleas were still violating the code.
The wrestler brought a crew from his son's production company, Holy Shift Productions, to film the meeting.
He said he wanted to document for himself why the town was forcing them to get rid of their furry and feathered friends.
A camera was poised on the lectern, as attorneys for the city and the Bolleas took turns making their case.
Then the board ruled: The Bolleas were still violating the code. They must pay a fine of $100 a day, dating back to Feb. 7, until they get rid of one more animal.
Linda Bollea burried her head in her hands and broke into heavy sobs. She ran out of Town Hall with a cameraman behind her.
Wearing a white tank top, blue and red surfer shorts and his trademark bandana, Bollea followed Cottrell into his office. Towering over the town manager, the wrestler told him the town was treating them unfairly.
"It's clear as writing on paper," Bollea said, his voice steady. "All we're going by is the code."
But Cottrell told him they weren't going to have that conversation and headed out the door.
From the Town Hall steps, Mrs. Bollea screamed at the code enforcement board: "You guys are heartless and cold. You're making my life miserable. You guys are a-------."
Fifteen minutes later, she had mellowed a bit.
"I did not mean to lose my cool," Mrs. Bollea said. "I just lost it. Each and every one of those people are lying under oath. I think they want me to get rid of the rooster, but they wrote a permit for that rooster."
The match isn't over. Hulk and his family have asked a circuit court judge to review the local board's decision.