Chicagoans cry fowl over proposed backyard chicken ban

[Praxius]

The title alone does it for me, lol:

Chicagoans cry fowl over proposed backyard chicken ban

Chicago city council is poised to send a message to residents: We don't want your clucking chickens. Coming up for a vote Wednesday is a proposal to ban chickens, a former barnyard denizen that is pecking its way into cities across the country as part of a growing organic food trend among young professionals and other urban dwellers. Chicken lovers say the birds make great pets, don't take up much backyard space and provide tasty, nutritious eggs. Cities including Madison, Wis., and Kent, Wash., have passed ordinances allowing people to keep chickens. In Ann Arbor, Mich., a councilman says he plans to introduce a resolution to allow hens to be kept for eggs, and the Board of Zoning Appeals in the upscale Indianapolis suburb of Carmel recently approved an exception to city rules to allow a family to keep three hens in their backyard. But the Chicago alderman who proposed a Chicago ban say chicken lovers forget that the birds attract rodents. "This past summer I started hearing that residents were letting chickens out of their yard and they were leaving poop and mice were feeding off of it," said Alderman Lona Lane. "Then we started getting rodent-control problems and, sure enough, it was the chickens." There are also concerns about parasites the birds might carry, and the possibility that they could transmit bird flu if it makes its way to the U.S., said Dr. Marek Digas, the supervising veterinarian at the city's Commission on Animal Care and Control. 700 Chicago chicken complaints filed in 2007 Many neighbours of chicken-keepers aren't happy, either. This year, the city received more than 700 complaints about chickens — though mostly about the racket from roosters. "We don't encourage people to keep roosters because of the noise," said Johannes Paul, one of the founders of Omlet, a British company that sells a dome-shaped chicken house called the eglu in the U.S for $495 US. "The chickens will produce eggs more than happily without a rooster around," Paul said. Although there are no firm statistics on the number of city chickens, they're becoming so popular that Backyard Poultry magazine was relaunched a couple of years ago after halting publication in the 1980s. And Paul said U.S. sales of his company's designer chicken coops have doubled every year since they were introduced here in 2005. Homegrown eggs tastier: chicken-keepers Those who have eaten eggs from their own chickens say they are far fresher and tastier than store-bought eggs. Some say the experience of chicken-keepers in other cities proves Chicago's proposed ordinance is unnecessary. "You hear the same argument (that) they're loud, they smell … that there would be wild chickens running amok in Seattle, but that hasn't been the case,' said Angelina Shell, of Seattle Tilth, a nonprofit organic gardening and urban ecology group. What may doom them in Chicago, say chicken supporters, is that for all the talk about noise, smell and disease, chickens simply don't look like they belong in today's modern city. "It's a gentrification issue," said Erika Allen of Growing Power, a nonprofit group that promotes urban gardening around the country. "People move in and they don't want chickens next to their house so they go and complain."

So do you feel it should be permitted that anybody should have the right to have chickens as pets for the above reasons, or should the government step in and choke all your chickens?

[Chancellor]

Quote by: Praxius The title alone does it for me, lol: Chicagoans cry fowl over proposed backyard chicken ban So do you feel it should be permitted that anybody should have the right to have chickens as pets for the above reasons, or should the government step in and choke all your chickens?

I don't know about having them as pets but if people want to raise them for the eggs or for food they should be free to do so.

[Osborn F Enready]

More police state nonsense.

[brien]

So do you feel it should be permitted that anybody should have the right to have chickens as pets for the above reasons, or should the government step in and choke all your chickens

It doesn't matter what I like. In fact, I raised chickens for years at my place. Holly Molly Dolly Polly and my Rooster Jolly. Nothing better than fresh eggs but you have to stew the old girls when they stop producing eggs.

Bottom line are the zoning laws that may be in place in each particular community. If the laws allow chickens in a particular zone, then so be it. If the law doesn't allow chickens, then each property owner can petition the ZBA to gain an exception to the law. The only other solution is to enact a new law allowing chickens in the local community in question. Otherwise their chicken is choked.

[Praxius]

Makes sense. I have no real issue overall with people having chickens as pets. What's the difference with other birds as pets that squack and crap everywhere?

I had a friend in college who had a bunny as a pet.... acted very similar to a dog.... although peed on me.... not to mention the farm/fishing side of my mom's side of the family I grew up around....

I guess I'm sorta a nature nut do to my overall exposure to various animals as a youngin, but I still know when it's time to pick them up, break their little necks and eat their insides.

[mark3748]

well, you know how Chicago has fared due to farm animals in the past. That dang cow nearly burned the whole city to the groud.

[Milton Bradley]

I guess the bird flu isn't enough of a motivator to keep people from doing stupid, stupid things.


Let us hope the young, urban professionals take up the practice of keeping pigs in the same space as well. Then we can all harbor nasty influenza like China exports to us each year.

[brien]

Let us hope the young, urban professionals take up the practice of keeping pigs

Milt; you are late to the scene man. Remember the Potbelly Pig Fad?

[Praxius]

Quote by: brien Milt; you are late to the scene man. Remember the Potbelly Pig Fad?

Yeah once George Clooney's passed away, the fad just was never the same. Wonder if he'll finally get a woman now..... or does he have a thing for animals?

Hmmmm.... I wonder.

[Milton Bradley]

Quote by: brien Milt; you are late to the scene man. Remember the Potbelly Pig Fad?

It's not just the pigs, it's pigs, and chickens together.


One harbors the germ, and allows it to mutate, the other catches it, and passes it to us.


We have known about this, and warned the Chinese of the health hazzards for many, many years.

[Compugasm]

I'm going to say two words too you: chicken diapers.

[Milton Bradley]

Quote by: Compugasm I'm going to say two words too you: chicken diapers.

That would make for good commentary on the Farm Market reports.


Chicken diaper futures up 3/8ths...

[Century 25]

Nah.. and besides.. there are enough city chickens already there. Also.. having farm animals in a city setting seems as bad as building a shopping mall amid a farm. (be sure to wipe yer shoes.. eh..!!)

Who needs to add the risk of histoplasosis..?

[ruksak]

I don't know about you people, but if my neighbors suddenly decided to keep chickens, they would be summarily executed in the dark of night. Take that sh*t to a farming zoned area, and welcome to the 19th century. We have chicken eggs available in great quantity at the grocer.