BYC'er ON TRIAL! *** UPDATE*** and Video pg 2

[Guinea Goonie]

Good Luck Kathy, really I wish you well. We all love our chickens and chicks.

I lived on a quarter acre when i had the suburban family thing going years ago.

I would think 20 or 30 adults and a nice housing for the babies to sell and replace your adults would be fine.

Keep getting others involved with your efforts and sell all your neighbors as many chicks as they can stuff in THEIR back yards and you will have the majority !!

 

[sonew123]

Hey Kathy its Natalie--I love my "girls" I have-they have adjusted nicely and just wanted to say keep plugging away-hope all is well

 

[tomdeggeater]

Well. Seems Kathy has mucho support from here.
Now to inundate the town council with emails!
Anyone go along with that? The addies were in an earlier post on page one, I think...
Remember, when they came for your neighbor, you didn't care.
But when they came for you...

Tom

 

[Birch Run Farm]

There is a news article in the T-A today:

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090922/NEWS/909229998/1002/NEWS01

What's awful about these is the bickering between bloggers besides the fact that the town officials have never even been to the property to even tour it.

 

[agnes_day]

i feel for her, that is how the city acted when they forced me to get rid of my goats..they never once even bothered to see where they lived or anything, they just threatened huge fines until i caved.

 

[Right On Reds]

Kathy, I'm sorry you're going through this hassle.

I live in Staten Island, one of the five boros of NYC. Staten Island used to be farm country and we had literally thousands of horses here. In 1980 we still had two thousand head of horses.

Then in came civilization. People moving into homes that were built next to existing stables. And all those people did was complain about horse smell, etc. It always confounded me how someone could knowlingly move next to a barn and then complain that it was.... errrr...... a barn.

Now we have less than a hundred horses here. Probably way less.

You see many of those barns were on rented property. When property values boomed, landowners sold their properties. Usually they sold them to builders who would then try and build a zillion townhouses where one house once stood. Between the rise of property values, and tightening laws and restrictions, the horse community which was once vibrant and healthy faded away.

In the late 1990's I sat on a panel which consisted of two horsepeople, local politicians and Dept. of Health representatives. There, we rewrote Section 161 of the NYC code for the keeping of animals in NYC.

The other horseperson had a commercial stable. I had a private one. The other horseperson tried to have the private barns fall under the criteria of a commercial, public establishment. This would open up the private barns to inspections by the health dept. not by complaint, but by whim. Basically, the constitutional right to search without warrant would be sacrificed. Additonally the commercial code called for bathroom and sewer or septic facilities in the barn itself. This would render the average homeowner unable to fit the financial burden of having to hook up sewer or septic out to their barn when they already had these facilities right in their home a few feet away.

This she did so that the private barns would be forced to close, and so folks would have to move horses to her barn. Nice huh? I would also add that the politician lived on the same block as someone who owned a donkey, a jack, who would heehaw at feeding times. He did not like the donkey (actually it was a Sicilian burro) heehawing at feeding times.

It felt like I was fighting the world. Well, the new code got written, I was able to save private backyard barns, but much to my dismay, when I got the new copy of the code, donkeys, burros and mules were formally listed as "wild animals" despite the fact that NY State listed them as domesticated. This excluded them.

The politician got his way, and the donkey had to go. Karma of course got him in the end when he had to resign due to his fathering an illegitimate child and getting caught. Not exactly very "Republican" of him.

Hens we were able to keep, but roosters and all other poultry were excluded. Rabbits are okay. Ferrets were initially outed as well, but continued efforts by the ferret lobby were able to legalize them again.

I now keep my horse at a lovely boarding facility in New Jersey. It's just easier. I don't have to fight people, and I don't have to attend a thousand meetings and I don't have to be a big, fat phony who has to network and gain political allies just to be able to keep the horse.

This is gonna be a long battle you'll be in for. You will be harassed and abused. The possibility of someone trying to hurt your chickens exists.

When civilization comes in, civilized behavior goes out.

I feel for you. Good luck with this. People sock.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/zoo/zoo-animal-healthcode.pdf

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

What stupid ignorant people!! Good for you for doing what you can on your own property!

 

[catspawsgirl]

I'm still learning about all this chicken keeping and with the exception of a couple free spirits they are all quite pleasant and quiet, except for the roo's

. Our feed mill is on top of pretty much all the USDA laws and said to contact the USDA and report the issue, they may show up to see that they are well cared for but since agriculture is slipping, They will most likely support you and your decision to raise them. A person has the right to eat and blocking someone from keeping any farm animal.restricts that and if they are for sale then that violates a persons right to freedom of enterprise. I just found out the we are TAX EXEMPT! If the government waves taxes on taking care of chickens then how can a government agency say you can't have them? I hope This is posted correctly and if not please feel free to correct me. we went from 5 chicks to 70 in a month so they must be legal here.

Thanks to BYC I have learned a lot about care of chickens and plan on continuing to learn. Good luck on your battle with the local govt. and back you all the way. We need to bring back farming and this is only a tiny part of it.

 

[erafter]

I hope they start working with you I have made some gains

What have I been doing in the last few months

Hello to all

Start off with good news...

After going to City council meetings, meeting with the Mayor, talking to each Council member, Talking with County Commissioners.

We are now working to help with the dog attack problems my family and I have been experiencing. Sadly we lost a bird to another dog attack and had one of our turkeys ripped up with very bad wounds but has pulled through. Eggs are hit and miss because of all the stress my animals are under. My family still lives in fear wondering when the next group of dogs will “Come calling”. I myself had another dog challenge me at the pen when I tried to get it to go away.

But I can say the police are responding. Our Chief of Police had signs put up at a few of the places the dog walkers are entering the land next to us. The Police are patrolling more often, even walking into the woods. The Chief of Police also put an article in our local paper stating the dog laws and fines. I was told that the Judges have been informed of the depth of the problem and they are going to punish any violations that come across to them.

We have this neighborhood above us, one of the best areas in our city, where the dogs are coming and this is where Mr. Gapp lives. They are calling it "taking their dogs for a walk", but what they are doing is walking into the woods, releasing the dogs and letting them run and defecate all over. This is happening on private land not owned by these people. It is shocking the amount of dog waste that has built up in the area right next to the homes where these animals are being released. I walked into the streets of this area along the sidewalks and vacant lots. There was dog waste every couple of feet. It was amazing that the people would live like this. I would have had the police out long ago if my family had to live in this place. Our home is at a minimum 8 acres away from the nearest home which happens to be Mr. Gapp's. But all along the 100 acres of this land next to us these people are using it has their own private waste dump.

The police are working with me to ticket violators and I have issued my first ticket patrolling the area. I myself witnessed a person release a dog from this neighborhood. The dog ran a block away from her and within 5 feet of me. I was on the phone with police dispatch to have the police come out. I had to write the ticket for this person and we are going to court at the first of this next year.

I cannot walk into this area without running into violators. In confronting them I'm questioned about my fowl and the right to have them. I'm told, "That it looks like I need to fence my property." "Get rid of the birds." They tell me. "They know who I am." "That dog killer." "That person who is ticketing people who are trying to exercise their dogs." with contempt and frustration they ask me. "What they are to do." and then tell me again that. "I should fence my property."

I have 2 acres and only 5 chickens and 2 turkeys in a closed pen with no rooster, and my neighbor thinks we should get rid of them... oh by the way, our so called neighbors live more than 8 acres away.

 

[BikerBabeRules]

some folks will never be happy...