4H/FFA Variances?

[BCB]

Could anyone provide me with cities that allow people to keep chickens for educational or exhibition purposes?

 

[averytds]

The only automatic ones I've ever come across are temporary in nature.

Such as, our county's fairgrounds are within city limits and there are many animal restrictions, necessary permits, etc and outright prohibitions like say, goats in town. The animals exhibited at our county fair violate many of these town codes and would be deemed illegal, except there is an exhibitor exception that basically waives all animal requirements and prohibitions for any animals in town expressly for exhibition purposes. Here's the catch, while I don't remember the exact wording and maybe it's vague enough a good lawyer could make some kind of argument, it's meant for only the duration of the show/fair and maybe a day or two after or before. It's not intended as a waiver for permanent town residence.


I've heard of the same type of things for educational, like say our local Kindergartner's Spring hatching projects. Our town requires a permit for keeping poultry. As the resulting chicks are re-homed within about a week of hatching, the city doesn't pursue the school or fine them for not having a permit. They make a temporary exception for educational purposes. Again, not for a permanent situation.



There may be places where more permanent legal waivers are automatically granted to 4-H/FFA kids, but I would guess the majority are similar to ours and either the writing is vague or people interpret it wrong. One of our neighbors is 100% positive poultry is illegal in our town. He's also 100% positive our birds are legal and untouchable because my kids are 4-Hers and "Well, there's an exception for that." It's not true, but I'm perfectly fine with him thinking that.

Now, none of that is to say no matter what the existing laws on the books are a person can't apply for and receive a variance.