Atwater Minnesota - cruelty to chickens - someone needs to change this.

[Blooie]

Not sure what there was to disagree with but I do appreciate your courteous, well thought out comment. I did say that the officer went over the line - that I absolutely do not condone his actions. I don't think I made a mistake in my first post criticizing the officer's conduct - I do think I made a mistake being too quick to jump on the "hang Atwater" bandwagon. This little community has a problem and it needs to solve it. The only part of my opinion which changed is recognizing that the owner of the illegal chickens bears some responsibility as well. And I'm not out to change anyone's mind here - that's not my right or my intention. I am saying that I've changed my mind.....but only as far as being too judgmental of the community.....I do not retract my condemnation of the overreach shown by this officer. Again, I'll bet this is the two seconds of his life he wishes he could have back.

 

[chickenladymn]

Thanks for such a kind comment about the lesson I'm teaching my son. He is sad the chickens had to go but understands that we have to follow the rules. I'm feeling guilty about this whole mess. The family that lost their chicken had seen our chickens and coop. Thinking it would cool they purchased their chickens. I had seen the makeshift coop they built and had heard complaints about how they were taking or not taking care of their chickens. I had offered on several occasions to take the chickens for them. I had even considered just taking them, But that was against the law. I urged them to build a larger coop. Which was done but not before a neighbor had took pictures of the dirty conditions. Those pictures were shown at a town council meeting and the decision to enforce the chicken ordinance. We all received notices to remove our chickens in 5 days. After a call to the city office 2 of the family's received a 10 day extension. We removed our chickens by the day asked. After the chicken was killed and the story went viral I'm shocked. The urge to raise your own food is growing in America and I wonder how many other little towns are having the same controversy.

 

[Blooie]

Fortunately not our little town. Folks here have steers, lambs, donkeys, mules, horses, goats, chickens, roosters, turkeys and ducks in town. I have a coop and chickens in my yard and my setup is visible from the street. Our residents who didn't have animals came to us and asked for some help. So it took us months, but we crafted an animal ordinance which allows for a permit system, lays out the requirements for cleanliness and noise and nuisance control, and sets fines and/or removal guidelines for those who would make it miserable for other animal owners and for our non-owners.

Some felt we went too far, others that we didn't go far enough. But we have something now on the books and a starting place for future changes. We formed a committee of owners and non-owners and told them to work together with the rough draft we had provided and make changes they thought were helpful or important. They worked together and then brought their ideas to the council, where we went over them and either included the changes or rejected them. But we had input from both sides and held 3 public hearings on the ordinance. I'm proud of the way we all worked hard to make it possible for our folks to be self-sufficient while allowing people who don't own animals to enjoy their properties too. Our ordinance works because everyone makes it work and we enforce it equally.

 

[enola]

I've never understood why, when someone says someone should do something, they always mean someone ELSE should do something.

Well, Blooie that seems the way in the world now days.......

 

[Blooie]

Well, Blooie that seems the way in the world now days....
Especially when we take a risk and leave the Porch, huh my friend!

..

 

[smudge]

Thanks for such a kind comment about the lesson I'm teaching my son. He is sad the chickens had to go but understands that we have to follow the rules. I'm feeling guilty about this whole mess. The family that lost their chicken had seen our chickens and coop. Thinking it would cool they purchased their chickens. I had seen the makeshift coop they built and had heard complaints about how they were taking or not taking care of their chickens. I had offered on several occasions to take the chickens for them. I had even considered just taking them, But that was against the law. I urged them to build a larger coop. Which was done but not before a neighbor had took pictures of the dirty conditions. Those pictures were shown at a town council meeting and the decision to enforce the chicken ordinance. We all received notices to remove our chickens in 5 days. After a call to the city office 2 of the family's received a 10 day extension. We removed our chickens by the day asked. After the chicken was killed and the story went viral I'm shocked. The urge to raise your own food is growing in America and I wonder how many other little towns are having the same controversy.

I think part of the problem here is that town was reacting to the mess rather than the people. It has been my experience that, regardless of # of pets, or legality of pets, some people will just be "messy". What should have been applied is some sort of health ordinance/code, if it's already on the books.

My understanding is that the ordinance was originally passed with the idea of sanitation/keeping out vermin in mind. Perhaps those trying to draft alterations in the ordinance should keep in mind that changes should include something about those public health issues - independent of domesticated animals. Because believe me, you can have some nasty hoarding situations with 0 free roaming farm animals.

There are ways of quantifying what is likely to attract rats and cause a public health problem - instead, you have a community where it's illegal to have a rabbit, never mind a chicken. Heavens! Rabbits are very clean animals, super easy to litter train.

It seems ironic that you witnessed a situation where the solution to animal cruelty was... animal cruelty.