Step one was an email to the City Council. I haven't written them in a while because they know how I feel about chickens and I didn't see a need to drive them crazy and potentially piss them off. But it's been six months, so a friendly email reminder about the chickens can't be considered nagging. Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
It's been many months since I first asked to have a small number of hens (no roosters) legalized in our city with no action taken by City Council beyond tabling it and promising to address it in 2010. 2010 is now half over. Since then, I have rescued two chickens who needed a home but - as it was illegal to keep them - I had to find them a home in the city of San Diego. Our entire family (including our daughter [who attends school where a member of city council teaches]) was sad to lose our new pets only moments after we got them. Here's our story:
Last fall I began gardening in my yard, growing food for our family and using the garden to teach our children about nature and science. Our soil lacks fertility, which could be provided by chicken manure. However, in order to get chicken manure, I must drive to a garden store and purchase a plastic bag of it, wasting money, gas, and plastic in the process. The bag is heavy and I must spread it around the yard myself. If I had chickens, they would do this for free, without the effort or the oil and without sending a plastic bag to the landfill. We compost with kitchen scraps, yard waste, and worms, but the compost bin attracts the attention of our dog, who wishes he could eat the rotting food. I'd prefer feeding our kitchen scraps to chickens and composting their manure with our yard waste so our dog would have no "snacks" to forage for in the yard.
Last week, I got an email that there were 2 chickens who urgently needed a home. Over email, I found a man who was willing to take them, and I went and picked up the chickens. They were both hens, about 4 months old. We made a temporary coop for them in the yard, which was no bigger than a cage for a large dog and provided ample room for the chickens to walk around. We kept the chickens overnight so our children could see them before we handed them off to the man who offered to give them a home. At dusk, the chickens roosted and went to sleep, as chickens do each night. The next morning they were awake with the sun, quietly peeping as they scratched the ground, looking for bugs to eat. As I gardened that day, I found a pest - a Japanese beetle larva - and I fed it to a chicken, who very happily ate it. Normally I step on pests or I drown them in soapy water (which annoys me because it wastes water). I much prefer feeding the pests to the chickens who can turn them into eggs and high quality fertilizer (chicken manure) for my garden.
Our children know we've promised them pet chickens, and they are eager to get them. When they saw the chickens in our yard, they were so happy. Our little one knows the name of the breed she wants as a pet (there's a type called a "naked neck" with no feathers on its neck and our she thinks it's hilarious to say "naked chicken!") and she recognized it immediately in our yard. "I LOVE my naked neck chicken!" she told me. I helped her gently pet the chicken and feed the chickens worms as a treat. She decided to name her chicken Annika. We don't know the breed of the other one, but she's a dark color with white specs around her face. Our older daughter decided to name her Elizabeth. The chickens are docile and very good with our children. The chickens clearly like one another and they always hang out together and cuddle up together at night. The entire time they were in our yard, I could never hear them - which is more than I can say for our neighbors two dogs. They stayed within their coop, within our fence, and never got out.
As much as we loved them, the law is the law, and the chickens couldn't stay. The man who agreed to adopt them came over, bringing a box to transport the hens in. Our little one does not understand what "against the law" means so she has no idea at all why we don't have chickens yet. She cried buckets, begging her Daddy to let her keep her pet. Our older daughter was more stoic, sadly saying she wished we could keep our chickens, but without tears.
For eggs of the same caliber that our chickens would produce, I have to get up early every Sunday to drive to the farmers market before the eggs run out. There's only one farmer who raises chickens in the right way to provide top nutrition in his eggs, and his eggs are so popular he runs out almost immediately. His eggs cost $5/dozen. There's a second farmer whose eggs I occasionally buy, but those are $8/dozen. I wish I could have eggs from my own chickens, for free.
This is the impact of the city government taking no action to legalize chickens quickly. I have been patient for 6 months but I do not want to wait any longer to get my chickens. Is there any way we could allow my family to have these two chickens as a pilot project to ensure that they cause no problems to our neighbors or anyone else in our city?
Thanks,
Jill
I got two replies. Perhaps it's no coincidence, but the replies came from the two members of city council who are up for re-election this year.
Reply #1:
Thank you for reminding me that we had merely postponed vs. permanently tabled this matter.
As you recall, a permanent concern is more than just chickens. It also lies with other animals. Pets and minimum yard size...restricted to single family residences vs. multi family residences. As you point out, it really takes responsible individuals to have these animals beyond the matter of pets.
I will get this matter up to sped with our staff. Please give me 5 points of concern that would and could arise if this one step (chickens) was legalized. Poultry neglect, abuse, and increased Public Safety/ Staff time and public health issues are not in the "5".
What are the strict guidelines and policies you would propose for the test project? Would an adjoining neighbor have the right to veto?
I replied as follows:
Wow, what a fast response! I think the concerns posed by chickens are the same ones that arise from all animals that people keep (including cats and dogs):
1. Noise
2. Smell
3. Owners who get chickens and can't take care of them or abandon them
4. Sanitary concerns (animal waste)
5. Wild animals or even other pets (dogs, cats) might eat or kill chickens.
However, it seems rather random to target one species (chickens) as an unacceptable pet while allowing so many others (dogs, cats, pot belly pigs, parrots, iguanas, etc). Dogs make noise and poop too - much more than hens do. And sometimes people adopt dogs and then can't keep them. Yet we would never suggest that these are reasons to outlaw dogs as pets. Instead we have leash laws and request that people clean up after the dogs, and I'd imagine the city has a way to address aggressive or very noisy dogs if they ever become a problem. Unlike abandoned dogs or cats, chickens in need of homes can be given to farms in the area. As for the problem of pets or wild animals killing chickens, that's also not a new problem. In fact, our dog killed our pet hamster, and my aunt's dachshund was nearly eaten by a coyote. So if those aren't reasons to ban hamsters or dogs, I don't see why it's a reason to ban chickens.
The problems chickens pose that differ from other pet animals are:
1. People might slaughter them to eat them, if you consider that a problem (as you might in an urban environment).
2. Baby chicks are often difficult to sex, so someone who orders hens might get a rooster by accident.
For people who accidentally get roosters, I can get you a list of local farms who would take any unwanted roosters. There are types of chicks called "sex links" where the color of the chick is linked to its sex (so males are one color and females are another) and people who want to be certain they get hens can get those. My boyfriend and I made a contingency plan that if we accidentally got a rooster, we'd give it to a local farm.
Typically other cities that allow chickens require they are kept in a well-kept coop and allow a certain number of chickens. Many ban roosters. Madison, WI required people to get "chicken licenses" for a small fee. Some cities ban slaughter. Some require that chickens are kept a certain number of feet from a neighbor's house, although I ask that our city not require chickens are kept prohibitively far away from neighbors houses (i.e. such a large distance that people with small yards may not have chickens at all).
Regarding a test project, do you think the neighbors should have veto power? We are next to an apartment building and I know many of the neighbors because they like to discuss my garden with me. After the amount of noise their dogs make (LOTS of noise, day and night) they would be pretty big hypocrites if they were opposed to us having chickens. I certainly think that they should be communicated with prior to any test project so that they know what to expect and can let us know if they have any concerns or requests.
The second reply I got was the following (from the member of city council who is also a teacher at my stepdaughter's school):
Thank you for your patience. Yes it has been 6 months and the general plan is being reviewed. I am meeting with the City Manager regarding this matter. As you probably know after the issue was raised neighbors for and against having chickens made their feelings known to the city. They are always going to be two sides. I appreciate your detailed email of how legalized chickens could help a family like yours (who is a responsible pet owner). Since you have a first hand knowledge of what it takes to maintain chickens, perhaps you could give me a some rules that one would have to follow in order to raise chickens.
I have to say, I really, really like this member of city council. Here's how I replied to him:
Thanks so much and I appreciate the action you are taking on this. Here are rules that are common in other cities that allow chickens:
1. Chickens must be kept in a well-kept coop.
2. You may only have a small number of chickens (I'd prefer a limit of about 6 so that a family with chickens can have enough eggs to supply the whole family even after the chickens begin to age and lay fewer eggs).
3. Many cities outlaw roosters (for noise or cock-fighting concerns)
4. Some cities require the purchase of a chicken license or permit for a small fee.
5. Some cities ban slaughter.
6. Some cities require that chickens must be a certain distance from your neighbor's house. (This provision worries me as it can be prohibitive for people with small yards if the distance requirement is too large.)
One chicken-related concern that isn't present for other animals is that baby chicks are hard to sex and sometimes people buy "hens" and get a rooster by accident. For this, I'd recommend people give their unwanted roosters to nearby farms, and I can gladly provide a list of farms willing to take unwanted roosters.
Let me know if there's any other information I can provide you with.
He replied almost immediately, saying:
Thank you for all the information. This will help. As you probably know and I have found out these past 4 years the wheels of government often move slow. But no excuses. I will continue to move on this and educate myself with what other cities are doing to accommodate their residents. I had ducks when I was little. This will eventually all have to come before the public and all neighbors will get to have their say.
I wrote back one last time with the following:
Thanks so much. There's a documentary out there called Mad City Chickens about what happened in Madison, WI so that's one of the more famous cases that is well documented out there. http://madcitychickens.com/ Nearby, Imperial Beach just legalized chickens so you can probably find out what they found when they looked into it by talking to them. I know people in El Cajon trying to change their chicken laws, and I've heard some talk that Lemon Grove allows chickens although I'm unclear on the specifics. Outside of California, some good examples to check out are San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and New York City.
So, we'll see what happens! This is all very exciting and quite daunting as it's my first foray into city politics. I've got a small collection of folks I've met in my city who also want to own chickens or own them already, and they've written to city council over the past six months as well. I don't think this is an issue that will affect the majority of residents of our city one way or the other, but for those of us who want chickens (or have chickens), it's important. As for what the neighbors think about us having chickens, I have two words for them: free eggs.
Previous installments of The Chicken Project:
Part 1: Initial Planning for Chickens
Part 2: Oops, it's not legal
Part 3: My public comment at City Council
Part 4: My letter to the city
Part 5: Bad News
Part 6: City Council Tables the Issue
Part 7: We Made the Local Paper!
Part 8: The San Diego Paper's Anti-Chicken Editorial
Part 9: San Diego Responds to the Union Tribune
Part 10: San Diego Paper Prints Our Letters
Part 11: We Foster Rescued Chickens
Part 12: Our Chickens Have a New Home |
