Board of Health against quarantine (oh, the irony)

[fox623]

We live in a provincial Massachusetts town that boasts a cadre of arduous regulations to gatekeep hobby farming. To get a permit, households must submit GIS plans (from the town’s website, of course), along with a plan of keeping and maintenance. Once those are approved (by the Board of Health, Department of Conservation, and Zoning Board), a plan with the location must be submitted and approved. Once the permit was granted (after a MONTH), I assumed we were fine. Yesterday, the town sent an inspector from the Board of Health to ensure that we put it where we said we would and to see that we are storing the food where we said we would (garage) and disposing of manure where we said we would (compost). The Board of Health inspector saw our quarantining hens in the garage and informed us that we violated the following bylaws: a) "No poultry shall be allowed to forage, stray, or roam unrestricted at the premises or elsewhere; hens must at all times be confined to the coop/henhouse and run"; and b) "Manure shall be stored not less than 50’ from abutting front, side, and rear property lines." My boyfriend is a doctor and explained to the inspector (who has never worked in healthcare) that quarantine doesn't work if the animals are living in the same place and that our new girls will be in the permitted coop as soon as possible. She told us that it was not acceptable because keeping them in our garage violated the rule that "No domestic animal as herein defined shall be housed within any part of a residential dwelling." We also had no idea that we would need to move our compost pile (which is approximately 10 feet from our neighbor's yard and has been since before I met my boyfriend) JUST because it now has chicken manure. It's a $50/day fine per offense.

TLDR: How hard is it to invoke the "Right to Farm" in Massachusetts? Is it OK if our quarantine is curtailed? They've been kept separate since 9/18 (nine days as of today) and all have been vaccinated for Marek's.

 

[azygous]

As far as your improvised quarantine goes, it has likely achieved its purpose. Be aware that the quarantine mostly is effective for identifying contagious diseases such as coccidiosis and Micoplasma g. Other diseases are not so common and you'll just need to hope they aren't being brought in. Quarantine does nothing whatsoever about preventing avian viruses. Chickens can be symptom free and still carry the disease and transmit it to your current flock.

As far as the permit/inspection issues, you are much more patient and cordial about it than I am. I tend to fly into a total meltdown of rage and indignation when I encounter such ignorance and inflexibility on the part of an employee who has the authority to make life difficult for you, made much more difficult by their ignorance of the issues with which they are dealing. If you are not able to get the inspector to understand the nature of quarantine and that it is strictly a temporary thing, then it's hopeless. Your options are few.

Before I turned into an octogenarian and ran plum out of patience and energy, I would call the employee's boss an explain what you encountered with the employee, stating that ignorance and inflexibility is counter to everything the ordinance is trying to accomplish, that more training of the inspectors as to the nature of things would be helpful to everyone, etc. But after eighty years and seeing how stupid is now an epidemic in this country, I am not hopeful such energy and time would produce any positive results. Just be happy this inspector didn't red-line you entirely.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Seriously, they have time to check chicken set ups?! Why don't they fight real issues..like restaurants. Smh, I'm sorry for the issues you're dealing with.

 

[fox623]

I appreciate your valuable feedback. Thank you all. I'm not entirely sure how to appeal to the Board of Health, but I'll look into it for others in our town who may encounter this same situation. A 30-day carve-out for adding new chicks to a flock is not unreasonable, especially since there's a six-hen limit.

We are both trying to see all the sides of our situation. I understand that the inspector was performing her duties, but I'd be lying if I claimed that my partner and I did not share a few laughs at her rigidity and make the joke that she was sent by his ex-wife.

At the end of the day, we are all human, doing our absolute best. Neither my partner nor I committed the entire regulatory code to memory and did not consider that quarantine would violate what we agreed to when getting the permit. We also failed to consider the locational implications of adding chicken poop to our existing compost bin.

For the remainder of quarantine, we are going to move the new girls into a bathroom, which is technically a violation, but there is no way we are letting anyone inside uninvited.

 

[samanthaoverton]

This is crazy. As long as their cared for and their area maintained its no one's business.

 

[McChooky]

If you can't quarantine them 30 days I wouldn't add them. 9 days isn't enough time.

 

[azygous]

the employee was just doing their job. they did nothing wrong.

if the bylaw says chickens can't be anywhere but the designated coop, and the inspector sees them elsewhere, well what would you like them to do?

they don't know your intentions, or even that your stated intentions are the truth.

i've never understood this point of view at all.

The thing is nothing in life is black and white in reality. Rules and laws do not always take this into account and make necessary adjustments. When compliance has been achieved with one small exception of a situation that is not permanent and will not continue to exist after another week or two, that rule is flawed and adjustments need to be made to accommodate such temporary and helpful exceptions.

Not everyone is able to consider nuances to things that the rules don't take into consideration. An employee sent out to enforce the rules is afraid of losing their job if they stray out of the strict boundaries established by the rules. Taking the matter to the department heads and negotiating a reasonable compromise is always permitted in our "free country". It's worth a shot. There's maybe a one percent chance you'll be able to talk to someone who isn't afraid to think outside the guidelines and make a judgement as to what constitutes reason. If you have the time and energy, it's the only way you are going to see things improve. Improving on the way we govern ourselves is a worthy endeavor in my opinion.

 

[SmiYa0126]

You're trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Either move some place where the local culture is compatible to your desired lifestyle, or accept the local culture for what it is.

You can also petition for less strict standards, go to your local house of representatives to see how you can change this. We're still a free country!

 

[fox623]

How can you raise healthy chickens if you aren't allowed to temporarily isolate the sick or quarantine any new chickens ? Maybe you can attend meetings and eventually get the rules changed ? Please keep us updated!

Oh, man.
I hadn't even considered illness.
I thought the quarantine would be one-and-done, but that makes TOTAL sense.
Fortunately, keeping them confined to the coop limits their exposure to some extent.
I believe the town made these rules without fully comprehending all of the variables involved in chicken care.

 

[DickMidnight]

Hey I get where you're coming from (and that's why I made sure to check chicken keeping laws before I moved to my new house), but it doesn't make the laws in OP's town any less silly. Taxpayers may not have even gotten to vote on whether their money went towards this specific thing or not.

100% agree with you that it's important to know the laws before keeping chickens, but my comment was strictly about how silly these laws are to begin with.

Edit: I also want to add that some parts of the law may not be as black and white as you describe. I don't think most people would expect that quarantining a sick hen in a garage would cause problems with the law saying the hens must be confined. Most people also might not expect a garage to count as part of the house. There are some grey areas here.

i’ve admitted that they’re pretty bad rules. especially the surprise inspection part of it.

i’ve developed HOAs and sat on boards to come up with rules and bylaws. coming up with these rules so they’re effective is really hard. if you don’t want your rules abused, it’s often better to lean towards restrictive and unfair

there really isn’t gray area. they covered that with the section that reads “chickens must be confined to the coop or henhouse at all times”. there isn’t any wiggle room there.

all that being said, i understand life doesn’t fit into a nice neat box. i’m not above going against the rules. it’s just when you get caught, crying about the rule you broke isn’t the answer.