They should come over to my street. They would make a killing over here in fines. I think there are more houses on my street WITH chickens than those without (we are in county), and only a few of us have large lots. Just on THIS block, I know of at least 5 houses out of 12 that have chooks. One family has some pygmy goats in their yard.
Sac County doesn't do anything about the hookers, the drug dealers, the addicts, the illegal dumping (I saw with my two eyes while both a Sac County sheriff AND a CHP officer, about 20 minutes apart, allowed a family to illegally dump the contents of their Uhaul in the middle of the street 4 houses away from me, and the cops did ... um... nothing). Unless you do something unkind to upset a neighbor to cause them to turn you in, or unless you just have a jerk neighbor who gets off on stirring things up, I don't think they are really going to do anything about it. In addition, the city is on the verge of voting a new ordinance regarding chickenkeeping, and I think there are a lot of people in council chambers who are in favor (only a handful on the council are not, and they're the ones that keep stalling the process).
We had a fella beat the living crap out of his wife in front of his two children and a bunch of neighbors, and several of the neighbors called for help. It took Sacramento County almost 45 minutes to respond and send out a unit. Unless you give Sacramento County (or city) a REASON to care about your flock, they generally don't. They really don't even care about your safety or your family's safety, much less be all up in arms about a handful of laying hens.
I feel bad for you that you got turned in and lost your birds. That must have been awful for you. I keep my neighbors happy, and they all know about my chickens and have since the beginning and don't care.
