Anyone interested in working toegther to change NE PA chicken laws?

[chickncrazylady]

We live in Foster County Pa. We had a small flock of chickens for almost 7 years and lost them when I was sick { hospitalized with major surgery and a long time in hospital} and unable to work to fight for changes. I was too ill at the time even though our hearts were broken and we still grieve for them. I am doing better now and my daughter and I miss our flock terribly. I am disabled and fun of raising them and spending time caring for and just watching them every day was one of my great joys in life. Also very important to us was our right to keep them for eggs that helped feed our family and knowing our birds were fed a healthy diet, as natural as possible and lived happy chicken lives. Personal freedoms like being able to feed your family is an important issue to us too, as well as we really love having them. I wondered if there is anyone else here near us or in our general area working for changes as well? When we moved here other people had chickens and some people told us that because others in town kept them and no one is sure exactly when the laws changed we should have been allowed to keep them. I don't know a whole lot about the legal aspects of this, but if anyone else does I would love to hear from you. A friend told us part of our property may have been zoned agricultural at the time we owned them but they are unsure and said the township just started changing the zoning after they made us get rid of our birds. The friend was unsure exactly where the agricultural line was in regards to our property. Anyone know how to deterimine this? Is it too late after they changed it to pursue this if it was in effect when we had them?
If anyone would like to form some kind of group to work to change local ordinances , or just contact me with any helpful advice it would be deeply appreciated. I have kept chickens my whole life and miss them. My daughter and I enjoyed them so much together. She has an autism spectrum disorder and has physical illness. They brought her great joy and really helped her feel better. She loved caring for them and enjoyed them as much as I did. If anyone in our area has been successful in changing their chicken laws we would love to hear from you .

 

[chickncrazylady]

I wanted to clarify I meant Foster Township, Pa not Foster County. We are in Hazleton -Freeland area but would welcome hearing from anyone who coud help as well as hoping to connect with some people in our area who also want to try to change things.

 

[Farmettehopeful]

I just wanted to let you know our ordinance (I'm on the on the other side of the state) so you can go into this with some information under your belt. If I had to guess, I would say most of my township is rural, we are out of city limits and our law (I just confirmed with the code enforcer last week) is that if you have under 3 consecutive acres, you can only have 6 chickens and it is called a "farmette". In order to have more chickens or larger livestock, you must have the 3 acres and will then be a "farm". Maybe if you call around your local townships/boroughs and get their ordinances it would help you. Good Luck!