Salt lake city ordinance - PUBLIC HEARING - tomorrow Thurs 11/5 @ 7 pm

[vermontgal]

The slc chicken ordinance is being changed with the guise being that they are making the ordinance more accommodating for chickens. But the devil is in the details, and this ordinance places new restrictions on the size of the flock based on lot size and some with small lots will be newly restricted from having chickens at all.

Slaughtering birds, which ican understand a resriction on commercial slaughter, means that no one will be legally able to cull for disease or old age. In short, the ordinance makes having chickens into a rich person's hobby -- gotta have enough land, gotta have the money for vet bills, gotta keep chickens after they stop laying... While some may choose to manage their flock that way anyhow, the propose ordinance is ignorant of the realities many face while raising chickens.

Please read more about this in the Utah thread in the Where are you section of the forum and look at the city councilwebsite:
http://www.slcgov.com/council/

and respond to the action alert per
http://wasatchgardens.wordpress.com...on-proposed-salt-lake-city-chicken-ordinance/

 

[Mac in Wisco]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to restrict the number of chickens by lot size. For one, there is nothing there based on any sort of science or any standard that I can think of. Secondly, if the birds are required to have 2 sq ft in the coop and 4 sq ft in the run and the ordinance says they are not allowed outside the coop and run area, what the heck does lot size have to do with it?

It is also inappropriate for the city to impose minimum shelter requirements for chickens. They are not animal welfare experts and they don't have such requirements for domestic animals.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

You're reading too much into it about the non-slaughter part. Most city ordinances that allow chickens have that. It doesn't mean that you can't cull a bird, it doesn't mean that you have to take it to a vet instead of culling, and it doesn't mean that you have to keep the hen after it stops laying. The ordinance is meant to provide for layer hens and not meat birds. As long as you aren't you aren't using a stump and a hatchet in the front yard, nobody is going to care.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Yup. I did mine after dark, all clean with the broomstick method.

We're legal, but I don't wanna freak anyone out and start complaints - ya know?