FAIRVIEW TWP — A custody battle over a goat apparently caused a man and woman to lock horns.

Things got so gruff, state police said, that one of the suspects armed himself with a gun.

Police this week filed charges in the case that arose earlier this month over ownership of the 7-year-old doe named "Amaretto."

The goat on Nov. 5 was in a pen at Benjamin Ziegler's West Slippery Rock Road home in Fairview Township. Ziegler's wife, Johanna Hardisty, in June acquired Amaretto and two other goats from Elizabeth Schnebel.

Schnebel, 45, raises dairy goats and draft horses for sale on her 5-plus-acre farm in Franklin Township, Beaver County.

While buying the two other goats, both mixed breeds, Hardisty took a liking to Amaretto, a purebred Oberhasli. Schnebel said she let Hardisty take Amaretto, with the promise of a $200 payment down the road.

"But (Hardisty) never did," Schnebel told the Butler Eagle on Wednesday "even after I tried talking to her four or five times."

Schnebel finally had enough, she said, so she went to fetch the goat at issue.

However, Hardisty confronted Schnebel and ordered her off her property where she and Ziegler live, according to court documents.

Instead, police said, Schnebel went to the pen to retrieve Amaretto. While she was putting the animal into her car, fitted with a kennel in back, Ziegler, 39, came out of the house with a shotgun.

He told police he believed he and his wife were being robbed.

He tried to prevent Schnebel from leaving, police said. Schnebel claimed Ziegler pointed the gun at her and threatened her with it.

But Ziegler gave a different account. He asserted the shotgun was in two pieces and not loaded.

"He related that he could not get the shotgun together," a police affidavit said, "so he held (the two pieces) at their assembly points to look like it was put together."

Schnebel got into the car and drove home with the goat, which remains on her farm.

Ziegler did not immediately return a message left on his telephone.

Police on Monday charged Ziegler with terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment and harassment. On Wednesday, police charged Schnebel with trespass.

Preliminary hearings for both defendants are set for Jan. 5 before District Judge Lewis Stoughton.

Schnebel said she still has trouble understanding the reason for the Nov. 5 altercation.

"All this over a goat," she said. "How bizarre is that?"

She said the incident has caused her to change her business practices.

"When there's a sale now, I make sure there's a contract," she said. "And the animal will be paid for before it leaves the farm."