Providence Journal Today
New law allows raising of hens in Providence backyards
07:32 AM EDT on Thursday, September 30, 2010
By Philip Marcelo
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Every once in a while, Camille Morrison would hear that city officials were in her South Providence neighborhood, and shed have to spring into action to hide her familys secret.
Morrison would run out to the yard, gather the evidence up in a box, and shuttle it into her house to stay unseen until the officials were gone. Now a new law has passed, allowing her to speak openly: she raises chickens.
Im hugely relieved, says Morrison, who has kept chickens on her half-acre property off Eddy Street for nearly eight years. Im out of the chicken closet.
Morrison is not alone. After years of hiding in the shadows, chicken owners in the city are going public, now that they have the legal right to raise chickens in their backyards.
Mostly, Im relieved, says Kate Lacoutre, an East Side resident who has owned four chickens since March. I really didnt want to advertise that I had them before.
The City Council gave final approval on Sept. 16 to an ordinance that would allow residents to raise up to six chickens, making Providence the first urban community in the state to pass legislation similar to chicken ordinances in other cities across the country, including New York, Portland, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Mayor David N. Cicilline signed the legislation into law Monday. About a dozen communities, mostly in Rhode Islands densely populated urban core, currently prohibit farm animals, such as chickens, on residential properties. The majority of cities and towns allow them.
Providences new chicken law comes as other communities are considering revising local laws to accommodate a burgeoning interest in locally grown food.
Many local ordinances were made for a different era and have not kept up with local needs, says Kenneth D. Ayars, chief of the state Department of Environmental Managements Division of Agriculture, who has supported the push of legalizing chicken-raising in Providence and elsewhere. Communities are recognizing that there is a need for an environment that encourages local agriculture.
While its hard to know exactly how many families own chickens in the city, city officials generally acknowledge that people have been keeping chickens in their backyards for years in violation of city ordinances.
In some of the citys ethnic communities, chicken-raising was a common practice. Later, with the movement toward organic foods, families in some of the citys wealthier enclaves took to raising hens.
For at least five years, advocates say, there had been interest in reversing the ban on chicken, though no formal proposal was ever presented to the city.
The movement took on new energy in late May, after East Side resident Christine Chitnis was ordered by the city to get rid of her two chickens.
She and others founded PECK (People Encouraging Chicken Keeping) and gathered close to 800 petitions, which they presented to the council, along with letters from more than a dozen local organizations.
It was their efforts developing a proposed ordinance amendment, lobbying council members, and turning out by the dozens to council meetings this summer that ultimately persuaded the council to change the law.
Supporters of the effort say that encouraging people to grow or raise more of their food at home helps strengthen the local food system, especially in light of growing concerns about food safety and energy use.
They also argue that locally grown foods, such as home-raised chicken eggs, provide a cheaper and healthier food source for low-income communities.
Its about going back to the way things should be, says Morrison.
The coming months will show whether the benefits outweigh the potential problems in reintroducing chickens to the urban environment.
Opponents, including the Defenders of Animals and the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, say the law could open the door for chicken abuse and neglect, exacerbate the citys rat problem, and create an unregulated, home-grown egg market that could lead to an increase in cases of food poisoning and other health hazards.
Its one thing to be raising chickens in rural Foster, but its another thing to start allowing them in congested urban settings, says Dennis Tabella, of Defenders of Animals. There are just going to be too many problems and the law will just not be enforced properly.
Supporters of the ordinance counter that the factory farms where many eggs are produced are far more abusive than raising them in a backyard. They also note that a number of provisions were placed into the ordinance to specifically address concerns.
The law, for example, limits residents to one hen per 800 square feet of lot area and a maximum of six hens on any property. It prohibits roosters, the slaughtering of chickens on residential properties, and keeping chickens in the house.
It calls for chicken coops to be well-vented and predator-resistant, with enough room for at least two square feet per chicken. And it states that chicken waste must be composted and feed properly stored.
The state Department of Health supports the measure; so too does city Animal Control Director David A. Holden, who is charged with enforcing the new law. It looks to me like if they follow that ordinance, then we wont have many problems, he said.
Says Chitnis: Weve written a law that keeps chickens safe and people safe. At the end of the day, it comes down to the responsibility of the owner. Its no different than having a dog or a cat.
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you have to read some of the comments that People are leaving on the ProJo website about this.
They have No clue..
I live next to Providence, and I'm Glad to see this
