Monmouth, Oregon Legalizes Chickens!!

We did it!!!  Monmouth, Oregon City Council voted in favor of backyard hens on July 5, 2012.  Now July 5 will be known as Independence Day for hens in our small town.

Three hard working Chicken Ladies joined forces at the end of 2010 and designed a campaign to change the chicken laws in both Monmouth and Independence, Oregon (MI).  Our campaign included a 42 page research packet provided to members of both city councils that detailed benefits and dispelled myths. I focused on identifying which laws on the city books prevented backyard hens, and identified existing laws that could be used to enforce our proposed chicken laws. Our campaign included t-shirts, web site & FB page, letter writing, book donations to our public library, providing City Council members with copies of the Backyard Chicken Fight by Gretchen Anderson and the City Revolution DVD by Barbara Palermo,  farmers market presents, public information meetings, and countless City Council Meetings, emails and posters. A local cable tv program did a show on our efforts. Citizens joined the revolution and helped the effort with petitions, editing, attending many meetings and lending their voices in countless ways.  The city of Monmouth created a web Chicken survey where 354 people said they support backyard hens (72.5%) and a whopping 150+ people said they wanted backyard hens!  

I am in the process of converting our website www.MIChickenRevolution.com to a chicken community resource center for Polk County, Oregon. Feel free to visit us there  or join the conversation on our FB page.  I'm sure the many new flock tenders in our area will/or have join/ed this forum to gather information and share their experiences.  As we all know, Chickens build community!  I am thrilled that both councils make a 180 about face and voted in favor of something that truly improves the quality of life of flock owners, their neighbors and the "girls" they love.   Read about our new laws here http://www.michickenrevolution.com/2012/07/hens-in-monmouth-oregon.html

Wishing everyone trying to change chickens laws a  successful Revolution! Power to the People! Power to Poultry :)

Warmly, Domenica