Pleasant Hills, PA - NOT FARM ANIMALS! =O

Good day. I wanted to ask advice on our little situation in the borough of Pleasant Hills, PA. I was referred here from aquaponicsnation, an advocate of micro farming, after posting some local news about the recent chicken banning.

A local family seemingly got into a tussle with the local coffee enforcer, who interpreted our old law about animals to mean their 9 hens are illegal. Apparently they were allowed 6. This led to a big hubbub at council which led to the new ordinance adoption, which gave the following effects:

-6 hens maximum
-no roosters allowed
-the chickens had to be permitted ($50 I believe, but don't quote me)
-the coop had to be permitted as an ancillary building (another $75 I believe)
-all applications had to be in by the end of the month. All subsequent applications forever would be denied.

This measure was adopted. Here are some relevant news articles:

http://triblive.com/mobile/6140998-96/chickens-council-borough

http://triblive.com/mobile/6142298-96/chickens-council-hills

http://triblive.com/mobile/6479997-96/chickens-ordinance-chicken

http://triblive.com/mobile/6460747-96/chickens-ordinance-chicken


Now, my interests are not with chickens as much as they are with raising fish and quail. However, the people who were being hurt by this seemed like good people so I wanted to raise my voice a bit, even though it didn't directly affect me.

What happened next did affect me. The chicken ordeal promoted council to take up a measure to ban all "farm" animals, including cows, goats, etc (OK, I can see that), ALL types of fowl (ugh, here's where I got miffed) and even bees (***, are you serious? ). Here is a relevant link:

http://triblive.com/mobile/6635523-96/ordinance-borough-farm

So I could use all the help I can get. This really feels like an invasion of freedom, and I don't want my small borough doing something like that. Thanks so much for anything that can help.

Wow! When are they going to ban kids? Seriously, is this an 'upscale' million $ home neighborhood? My best suggestion is to get local petitions going, find out who exactly is behind the ban (and why). Next step is try and educate the nay sayers, contact your local representative saying that you believe this is an infringement of your rights. After all, some people like to keep big, noisy dogs who poop all over, others like to keep a chicken or few. I totally get the rooster thing, but you don't need a rooster for eggs.
Good luck and keep us posted if there is anything we can do, Whatever you do, don't give in!