Beef: It's what's for landscaping

PURVIS, Miss., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A new kind of landscaping ornament is beginning to catch on in suburban and rural communities across the United States: livestock.

Horses, bulls, sheep, chickens, goats, ducks and other live animals are the new lawn jockey for many trend-setting homeowners looking for that new, unique look to set them apart on the block, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"Why do people have horses? You never see them ride them," Don King, president of Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, told the paper. The point is, "You can have something that no one else has."

"People ask, 'Why buy a llama? What does it do?' But I say, 'What does a Picasso do?' It doesn't do anything but look pretty," reasoned Dennis Abreu, a llama breeder in Mount Shasta, Calif.

To give his home more of a "Western" feel, Bill Hudson spent $12,000 so nine Texas Longhorns could roam the 1,000 acres surrounding his Purvis, Miss., home.

"I wanted pretty ornaments ... and needed cows to decorate my pastures," said Hudson, who later added six horses and three donkeys to keep the Longhorns company.