Call for help against banning roos in Austin, TX

[allen wranch]

Austin is thinking about banning roosters in the Austin City
Limits. In a nutshell, the impetus for this proposed amendment
is a woman who lives next to a man who owns 20 roosters and
appears to breed them for illegal purposes. She has called APD and
others to get the roosters taken away or quieted b/c they crow
all the time. She has had no luck, so she is trying to get a
ban on roosters. However, there is already a noise ordinance
for animals, so this proposed amendment is just specifically
singling out the rooster.

There was a Planning Committee meeting 12/8 regarding the ban.

Good news: The Commission voted to send the matter back to
Subcommittee for further research. However, the subcommittee
will be meeting 12/15, so we need our research quickly. We are
hoping our fellow chicken community can help us gathering
information, due to the time constraints on time and resources.

Could you provide by 12/12 - if at all possible (if later, we'd
still like the info on or before 12/14)

1) Information on your city name and its chicken ordinances.

2) Does your city allow chickens in general? Does it allow
roosters?

3) Are there specific noise ordinances for chickens/roosters?

4) Have there been any recent changes in ordinances recently in
favor of or against chickens? We are especially interested in
the "in favor of" scenarios.

5) Anything other resources or information you think would be
valuable.

Please send any info to my personal email.

Thanks for your time and help.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If htere is already a noise ordinance, why is code enforcement not using it? If the birds are being used illegally, has she called the police? Seems like those routes should be exhausted before creating new ordinances. If someone will break one ordinance (noise) they are just as likely to break another (rooster ban). Therefore adding a new ordinance that will affect others whose birds are not creating a problem does not make sense.

edited to add: a noise complaint should also go to the police as well as code enforcement.

 

[AtHomeDaddy]

I live in the city of Austin, in a neighborhood. I would never think of trying to keep a mature rooster, with neighbors all around.

But I am worried that a new city code might erode my ability to keep a reasonable flock of hens (I currently have 3) on my 1/4 acre lot. Here in Austin we have a pretty good thing going and I really hate for anything to rock the boat. I would love to see things left as they are, with current codes and ordinances enforced to prevent/stop this type of thing. But goodness knows I wouldn't want to live near 20 roos.


Full disclosure: I did have a "surprise" Light Brahma roo last year. I gave to a friend who lives out in the country before he fully matured (and had only tried to crow once).

 

[allen wranch]

If there is already a noise ordinance, why is code enforcement not using it? If the birds are being used illegally, has she called the police?

She has called APD and others to get the roosters taken away or quieted b/c they crow all the time. She has had no luck, so she is trying to get a ban on roosters.

She has called several places to get the roosters quieted or gone. There is no evidence they are being used illegally, just a suspicion because of the numbers.

There is a lot of good information in this section about various ordinances and I hope to get enough information to show they are allowed in a lot of places.​

 

[valereee]

Montgomery, OH. Allows up to six chickens, no roosters, coops and enclosures must not be visible from the street and must adhere to setbacks and property maintenance codes. Our city council made chickens illegal in July, and we got them to turn it around and relegalize chickens this month. Here's the document we used to convince them: Changing Your City's Chicken Laws. Don't know if that helps since we don't allow roos; it's VERY common for cities to forbid roos.

Quote:

 

[allen wranch]

Valereee,
Thanks so much for the information.

The girls in the picture and their birds are adorable !

 

[valereee]

Aren't they? Those are a neighbor's kid, her friends and her chickens. I saw that photo and thought, "there's the money shot!"

Quote: