Changing FL Laws! WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET *PLEASE READ UPDATES

YOU DONT HAVE TO BE A FLORIDA RESIDENT TO HELP OUT PLEASE READ UPDATES BELOW!!!!
Hello Everyone here in BYC and everyone else that is first coming in to this website's forum to help out. First of all......... and thank you for coming out to help!

We need all the help we can get by having you guys support us in this fight to keep our chickens here in Orlando, FL.

As some of you know, Here in Orlando, and many counties here in Florida in general, have a law that states poultry can be raised in ONLY certified agricultural areas, and forbids ownership in residential suburban areas.

Now many people around the U.S have chickens in their suburban homes without any problems, but only in those states that have changed those laws to keep chickens in suburban homes. Some examples would be California(Los Angeles, Pleasant Hill, and more), NY, Washington(Seatle), and more.....You can read more on this below...........


1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-01-02-urban-chicken_N.htm

2. http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/x220011758/Chicks-in-the-city-Many-residents-keeping-chickens-at-pets

3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189689 (nice article!)

Now there are other people that do live in those states that havent been able to change their laws, and even keep chickens illegaly to say; including myself, and everyone that has poultry in their suburban, residential homes.
Now we know many reasons why we keep Poultry(Chickens, ducks, etc), and can't blame ourselves for not knowing or doing "research" if they are permitted in our area or not....many of us dont want to go against the law but many of us know the beneficial things of having poultry in our home and if we have had to go againt a rule on it then we would to go against, like many already have in the past........liked those same people that helped changed their states laws to keep poutlry in their own backyards!........................

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!
Why do we need help? We need help because if we aren't able to help out or get help, than many people around Orlando are going to keep losing their chickens like some other people already have in the past.
I know many people around my area that have been reported by at least ONE pesky neighbor and have had to give away their chickens.
If other people have been able to change their local laws; even in more complicated places like cities, than so can we!!

HOW can we help? We can help by just sending a couple of emails(just copy, and paste the same email to everyone if possible!)
with our positive opinions on why poultry should be allowed to have in suburban, residential areas. I know and have heard of some people that have been able to change their laws by getting support like this and doing this same exact thing. This does work because your facts and positive opinions on this DOES matter!
It doesnt matter if you are or are not a resident or Orlando or Florida at all!
Just educate the people that are uneducated in poultry who think they are just Stupid, nasty, dirty, smelly, noisy animals to have.

SOME THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HAVING POULTRY!
WHY WE KEEP POULTRY!

1. Supply our families with Fresh, natural, Organic(depends if you make them organic) eggs that are free of antibiotics, and chemicals. and mostly in these harsh economic times where we need all the help we can get either by growing gardens, or just raising chickens.

2.A. Helping the environment....you dont need to be a treehugger to keep poultry to say .By keeping poultry they keep our gardens, and properties clean out of harmfull pests without the use of harmfull chemical pesticides. they remove ticks, grubs, and moslty here in Florida...Fire ants!
B. Their feces provides our gardens with natural nitrogen full organic fertilizer to grow our gardens without nasty chemical fertilizers.

3. And these animals also help out with stress, they are such great animals to have in the home because they have such great personalities and are great to have in general......
AND EVEN MORE REASONS but you can add more if you'd like!

HERE ARE THE PEOPLE TO CONTACT...............

People To Contact to get this Law Changed and to start making a difference!

UPDATE1.Zoning Divisions Manager- Mitch Gordon-Email: [email protected] (Contact him FIRST because he is the one that will take this further!) UPDATE We do not need to contact him anymore until futhur notice....he tells us to now just contact the board of directors below......PLEASE DO!

2. Legislative Senator of the State of Florida- Mel Martinez-
http://martinez.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactInformation.ContactForm
PLEASE CONTACT HIM TO ADD THIS POULTRY LAW TO ALL OF FLORIDA!!!!!!! AND FOR HIS SUPPORT!!!

BOARD OF COMMISIONERS THAT WILL GET THIS PASSED!

3. District 1 commisioner- S. Scott Boyd Email: [email protected]

4. District 2 commisioner- Fred Brummer Email: [email protected]

5. District 3 commisioner- Mildred Fernandez Email: [email protected]

6. District 4 commisioner- Linda Stewart Email: [email protected] (Shes a 2006 District 4 Avian Flu Panel Member, so watch out for her and have good reasons!)

7. District 5 commisioner- Bill Segal Email: [email protected]

8. District 6 commisioner- Tiffany Moore Russell Email: [email protected]

AND IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP..........................................

9. Mayor Richard T. Crotty Email: [email protected]



Thank you once again for everything and i hope everyone can have the chance to help out....everyone here will appreciate your help!!

Chicken7777

Isnt this the same post thats been posted 3 times already? Is there updates to this one vs. the others?

I'm confused

Im not allowed to say, but that thread was ended due to some "problems" or "concerns" i hope it doesnt happen again...................but please i was given permisson to make a new thread on the same thing and please continue to help.......only update is that i have been able to recruit more people...I was able to send an email to our high schools FFA(future farmers of america group) so they should be in contact very soon as well. If you'd like you can go ahead and bring the other helpfull people back to this thread, that lost the link.

Thanks again!

Your best bet so you are not fighting hundreds of separate fights is to work for an amendment to Florida's constitution.

This web page will give you a good idea on the process. http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Laws_governing_the_initiative_process_in_Florida

The following is just my suggestion to give you a jumping off point for discussion.

Make a reasonable demand instead of a blanket demand. Instead of wording it so that anyone can own an unregulated amount of birds, word it so that it limits the number of non commercial ownership of HENS normally deemed poultry under Florida law to no more than 1 hen per x number of square feet of residential property.

That is a great idea TrollKiller, and that is most definently right on the sq.ft because i know other people have more land than others and sometimes if you have more land you should have the privalage to have more poultry, i do have to say thought that looks very confusing and all just reading it, i will try to concentrate and see if we can do that as well possibly. Trollkiller if you can explain more on how that works it would be great!.....on the ammendment i did actually do something like that...more on that below on Governor Charlie Crist.......

UPDATES Saturday, January 10 2008

Well I myself have been able to send out emails and actually post on our Orlando.craigslist farm/garden section, and have actually had people replying back wanting to help out. I sent some emails to some people i know that also have poultry around my area....including the nice lady that was reported by her pesky neighbor and had to give away her loved long pets due to that......she is actually joing in to help!

Also contacted the FFA Association of Orlando, fl. I hope to receive a reply this coming week. There is also a high school near our home; where i attended myself. And they happen to have an FFA class. They had sheep, chickens, ducks, etc ( i wonder why they dont get affected by that ordinance?) so i emailed the teacher as well of that class. We hope to get her support too.

I sent an email to the Governor Charlie Crists office this past thursday and i actually received a reply yesterday but I guess from one of his analysts who first reads the emails to then transfer them to the Governor. I am hoping i do get an official reply.

I hope to continue making new updates post, as we continue this battle.
I read a nice article supplied by portagegirl and is already edited above. This article has really given me hope to actually do this.......this article gives us all hope!


Well i hope to also continue to see new posts, hopefully of the nice new people entering BYC to help out and support. Please do help out by emailing the contact but if you can post please do post.

Thank you once again!

Hi I was recruited by the Ad on Orlando.Craigslist. I do agree on why these laws should be changed and that we should move to change these laws to approve on owning chickens and ducks in our home. I live near downtown and I used to have chickens at one point but one neighbor that lived down the street reported me. I didnt have any roosters so I dont know why he would do that. I am all for changing these laws, and agree on why they should be changed since chickens and ducks are such great animals to have. They are less noisy than dogs and supply eggs everyday. I have already signed up and emailed to all the contacts on the email that I received. The same contacts that are in this same thread. I hope more people also come out to help out. Thank you for bringing me to this great forum and for helping to change these laws because if these laws were established in the past I would have never lost my chickens.

Hey folks, I don't know a bit about how Florida works. I know that in most states, if you write to the Governor, some upper-medium-level staff person actually replies to you. You might try contacting your state legislators (in your district) instead and/or the legislators who are on your agricultural committee, or whatever committee would take this up if not ag. (housing, health?)

Again, I don't know how it works in other states, but in Vermont if you want to change a state law you ideally try to find a friendly legislator who sits on the committee that would take up the bill. A legislator who really wants to make the bill happen (or tack it onto some other legislation that is moving ...).

We hear about how legislation ends up with all this extra stuff on it -- that is because it is really really hard to move a little tiny chicken-friendly provision on its own when the economy is collapsing. But, if you could get the chicken-friendly provision on some state economic bill -- you know, because keeping chickens is part of the Florida solution to the economic crisis -- then you might actually have a chance to make it happen!

Good luck.

Thank you soo much vermontgal! Yes it is true thats why actually I contacted our legislator/Senator Mel Martinez. I didn't add his email address above but i will add the link so that everyone can be able to contact him as well.....I do have a couple of updates so please do hear out....

UPDATES Monday, January 12 2008

Well first of all I want to say thank you ChickNduck7 for coming out to post and giving support and wanting to help! It was great that we were able to post this cause in the Orlando's Craigslist farm and garden section. Since posting allot of people; even BYC members ( If you are a BYC member please do post, if even if you are not please do post to give more support to this thread!) of the Orlando area have been able to reply back to the ad wanting to help out so thank you very much and please continue wanting to help out!

One accomplishment that we actually have is that We have been able to actually send enough emails to the Zoning District Manager Mitch Gordon that he was able to send me an email (to many others as well i am sure) regarding our situation. He told me that we should now start emailing and contacting the Board of Commisioners for our area. Their contact information is above so please do contact them.

I have also been contacted by many people whom this law affects them but they are not located in Orange County Orlando, but in either Osceola or Seminole or other parts in the state of Florida. I want to be very clear on why you SHOULD help even if you do not reside in the Orange county area. With helping Orange county accomplish these law changes regarding poultry we are giving a message to seminole, Osceola and many other counties around us. We will be making a statement about these law changes needing to change in ALL the state of Florida.

We are making statements in the form of first; changing these laws, and also getting it up there to have recognition of what we are doing, secondly by contacting our Legislative Senator Mel Martinez of the state of Florida. Finally, We will accomplish this by also informing Orlando's newspaper "Orlando Sentinel". We hope that like other newspapers that have been able to locally help out in others states that worked on this same thing, that Orlando Sentinel will help out as well by informing/sending out the news on how this needs to be changed, not only here but in ALL Florida.

Well i hope everyone can be able to help out in anyway possible...i added the link to contact Senator Mel Martinez so please send your Copied emails to him as well. Just Copy and paste to him as well!

Thank you very much

Hey, I'm a little late in posting this...and apparently created a new "thread," too, but no one can accuse me of being a "techie!"

In response to Chillin's request, I emailed all the below bodies with the following convesation with my daugther...


Dear Mayor, Richard Crotty, Zoning Division Manager, Mitch Gordon, Zoning Division Supervisor, Carol Hossfield, and distinguished Commissioners -

I am sitting here with my daughter, Madeline, age eleven, and answered her question, "why would this young man ask you to help him?"

My response was, "If you know something about a topic, and can share that information with the right people to correct a wrong, don't you have the responsibility to do so?" She agreed, but wondered what the "wrong" was.

I asked her, "Which smells worse: dog poo or chicken poo?" She replied, "They both stink about the same."
I asked her, "Which is louder: a barking dog, or a clucking hen?" She laughed, and said, "The dog...duh!"
I asked her, "Which poses a greater danger to a child on the sidewalk: a pit bull terrier, or a hen?" She giggled, and said, "The pit bull."
I asked her, "Which animal contributes more to a family's well being: a dog or a chicken?" She thought about it for a moment, and then quickly replied, "A chicken can lay eggs and fresh eggs are great for breakfast. Fried chicken is good, too!"

Orange County has ordinances and zoning regulations that make it illegal to keep chickens, even in limited numbers, according to a very nice young man who recently was visited by the police due to a neighbor (presumably) complaining about five hens. He would like to be able to keep his small collection of five hens. As a resident of Lake County, and living on five acres surrounded by orange groves, he asked me to make an appeal on his behalf, and weigh in on the pros and cons of domestic fowl.

Chickens are no more "dirty" than dogs, cats, or some people unless they are neglected, crowded, or abused. Chickens are not loud. Chickens are not destructive. Even the argument that chickens will destroy us with Avian Influenza doesn't hold much sway as every winged bird poses the same risk; will we kill every chickadee and shoot at every robin? Chickens are a little different for people who have been seperated from the reality of food production for a generation or two, but people in cities, towns, and villages all over the world keep chickens for some very obvious reasons. I admire this young man's desire to try to be a little more self-supportive. I also admire his attempt to lower his "carbon footprint," by keeping some food production in his own backyard. More Americans should be like minded. "Victory Gardens" were all the rage when America needed to conserve and reduce energy and supply inputs in the U.S. to support a campaign abroad; what makes keeping small livestock...a few rabbits, a few hens, a beehive or two, so radically different. The keeping of backyard chickens also creates a "gene bank" for the future. I feel confident that the major poultry houses will one day need those heritage breeds of chickens, in the many shapes and colors, to keep industrial food production possible. Please, advise us as to what needs to be done to get a variance for this gentleman?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,
Brandon Hudgens

Hey Brandon! Thank you soo much for coming by and posting on the thread. I just came to take a little peak to see if someone had post for the cause, and I see your post!

I am happy you were able to post.....Please anyone and everyone reading this thread. Please do post on the cause. Say why you are here for the cause, and why you think these laws should be changed.
By the way.....I love that email! It really opens up the minds of the hard minded, uneducated poultry people....

Now to the updates on the cause.
UPDATES Wednesday, January 14 2008

I was able to make an email on the cause and have sent it to about everyone that wanted to help and that contacted me and others for this cause......

There is a nice lady whom also is a recruit! She loves the idea of this changing....She was the one with the pesky neighbor that reported her having chickens!
she was able to go to an Organic food spot she always goes. Where she buys some organic vegetables, and milk, and she was able to talk to everyone there on this cause and all of them are wanting to help out as well...even a lady in Seminole county whom lives in a rich area, and she even has one chicken whose neigbors dont even complain on about.

Well going to the news....THE GOOD NEWS IS that now we have to start making up the law. We need to state what exactly should be in that law and propose that to the Board of Commisioners, and Mayor, just like Mitch Gordon states we should.....Now we all need to give our opinion on this, you can read more on this below!....i will be posting on this proposal later on today...

But please everyone; lets continue doing a great job, on recruiting and on trying to change these laws! I am going to try to contact the Orlando Sentinel as well today if possible.


.....I was also able to contact Mr.Mitch Gordon here is the email i sent and what he replied on the proposal, and what I replied back!

From: [mailtohotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:18 AM
To: Gordon, Mitch
Subject: RE: Poultry Laws!

Hello and good afternoon Mr.Mitch Gordon,
I am replying back to you with what you said we should do now to change these laws. I did leave you a voicemail but have not heard from you so that is why i am sending this email. but i might call back later on.
I wanted to know if you are going to be involved in this as well. Are you going to give this report or request to the board of commisioners or shall we continue sending emails to the board of commisoners to get them to start doing something on this?
I would like your positive reply on what we should do to try to change these laws.

I appreciate the help, and i know everyone else with this cause does as well.

thank you very much!



I would suggest that your group should attempt to contact the office of the County Commissioners and see if any Commissioners are sympathetic to your cause. It will take an action from our Mayor or County Commissioners to bring a policy change such as this forward. You may want to draft proposed language as to how you would want our codes changed to meet your goals and distribute that to see if there is any interest. I can tell you that historically Orange County has maintained the position that animals such as pigs and poultry are farm animals.



Orange County Zoning Division
Mitch Gordon, Manager
Orange County Administration Building
201 S. Rosalind Avenue, 1st floor
P.O. Box 1393
Orlando, FL 32802-1393
Phone: (407) 836-5896 Fax: (407) 836-9628
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.ocfl.net/zoning


Thank you very much for the help Mr.Gordon.
On conacting the mayor and the county commisioners, that is what is being done. Thankfully to God we have been able to recruit allot of people, and are continuing to get more people in to this "Great" Cause.
On the farm animals.......everyone has an opinion, and yours is exactly right if we are talking about horses, and cows for residential home areas.
Please do read these articles which will help you out in understanding why we are doing this, and why more "up in recognition" cities have been able to change these laws!

(references, and facts!- Please do Read!
1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-01-02-urban-chicken_N.htm
2. http://www.dailynewstribune.com/hom...-city-Many-residents-keeping-chickens-at-pets
3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189689

Thank you again for your time and help.