Broken Arrow, OK, animal control visit

[dustingebhardt]

I looked over your code... Without actually seeing your setup, these are things that may pose issues...
/snip

The officer said that my setup was clean and orderly. No odors. No obvious signs of manure. The aviary is roughly 50' from my house. It is farther way from my neighbor's houses. I'm nowhere near 150' from a school or food place. OK Cottage Food Laws allow me to run a home-based food business without a permit if it makes less than $20k a year in sales. I'm well, well below that.

 

[PirateGirl]

The officer said that my setup was clean and orderly. No odors. No obvious signs of manure. The aviary is roughly 50' from my house. It is farther way from my neighbor's houses. I'm nowhere near 150' from a school or food place. OK Cottage Food Laws allow me to run a home-based food business without a permit if it makes less than $20k a year in sales. I'm well, well below that.

There was something in the code about not being able to have a commercial animal operation unless you are zoned agriculturally. An as another mentioned, your town will likely have business license/sales tax requirements etc., but again, business regulations are a whole different can of worms and I'm not sure that's what the ACO visit was about. It sounds as if you are compliant in terms of setbacks from other homes and businesses, so that is good. Your best bet really is talking with Animal Control again, the best anyone on BYC can do is speculate.

 

[dustingebhardt]

I guess that this all comes down to noise and "nuisance". Whether or not I have the right to keep the quail doesn't matter if they are noisy enough to cause a nuisance. It looks like I will butcher my birds and begin my search for a more rural home. I've had this on my radar for some time now anyway.

 

[booth2010]

Sorry to hear that. Do you think you could talk to your neighbor and ask them to tolerate it for a bit longer while you search for a better place? I would imagine animal control would drop the issue if they tell them its not an issue anymore. Good luck searching, hopefully you can find something quickly!

 

[booth2010]

@dustingebhardt any update on the situation? Hopefully a better solution has been reached?

 

[dustingebhardt]

Yesterday I butchered 33 males. This should be all of the males. I'm hoping that this quiets down the flock. Animal control is supposed to come by again this week to see my progress. I hope that with a quiet flock, the officer will just let it go. Otherwise, I have another 50+ birds to butcher over the next couple of weeks.

 

[booth2010]

Sorry to hear that, hopefully that will be enough to silence your neighbor and get animal control off your back.

 

[123RedBeard]

When animal control does come back ... ask them very specifically what the complaint is, and what law is being broken?

If they are wishy washy, mealy mouthed about it, tell them you want it in writing ... so, you can show your lawyer!

Guessing, and butchering, and buying a new house might solve the problem, but ... maybe the neighbor(s) just need to "suck it up buttercup" and realize that there is no laws being broken, and they are free to move!

 

[TxFlyGuy]

I would follow the advice given as to getting more information but I would do it in writing. Email is best but certified letters work too. Explain what you have above about the location of the aviary and the officer’s reaction. You don’t see how that violates the code and refuse to comply with the seemingly unlawful demands unless they can show a valid violation.

 

[Wil781]

Until I was given something in writing as to what the problem is I would NOT do a thing with my birds!!