Chickens arent allowed in Forest Grove, OR?

[rosyposyosy]

reccently, my baby chick got attacked by a stray cat, and the vet bill was more than what we had, so it got put on the card. We found out that our neighbor (with 9 cats already) has been "trying to tame this cat" for about 4 months now. We calmy went over there and discussed this, that he has been chasing our chickens, and attacked 2, and since he was indeed a stray, the next time he was in our yard, we would trap him and bring him to bonny hays (our animal shelter). she said that she would rather do it, and she will bring him to a feral colony.
that weekend, we fixed the run, made it completely predator proof, but the chickens still need to free range (the eggs are TERRIBLE now!!) today, she sneaked over a letter to our door, thinking no one was home. the letter was saying how she consulted the neighbors and they think the chickens are a problem rather than her newest addition "Van". she also said she called the city and chickens are illegal.
now this is what bothered me. i got the chickens from the feedstore 3 blocks away from my house. as well as the organic feed, oyster shell, heat lamps, feeders, everything. if chickens were illegal in forest grove, why do they sell them?
also, when i got the chickies, i looked up laws, and couldnt find any specific laws to forest grove, so followed the ones that portland had (we are the suburb of portland). meaning 3 hens, no roosters. this is black mail, and i dont like it. and actually, legally, if this cat is on our property, we can legally trap it and bring him in. also, none of her (now) 10 cats have collars.

if forest grove has lots of farm land (not the part we're in unfortunately) how come the city can have chickens and we cant?

sorry. i had to vent. i am going to start a petition once i call an atorny (sp?) to see if it is an actual law (I saw this thingy on youtube)and then get the right steps to follow to petition making chickens allowed.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

You don't need a lawyer to find out the law there. Just call them up and ask. Don't take their word for it. Ask them if they will send you a copy of the statute or if you can come down and pick up a copy.

 

[rosyposyosy]

i tried calling the city, and after saying we cant have chickens, we asked for the law, and they sent us to an automatic menu. we did call the animal shelter, and we can indeed, take any cat on our property to them, that doesnt have a collar (which is all of them in our neighborhood sadly enough.)

i saw this thing on youtube and it was this guy calling around to see if he could have chickens, after a week of people telling him no and never actually getting a law, he called an attorney and they said it was ok.

in the letter she said "cats are natural predators and your chickens are an attractive nuisance in our neighborhood(as well as being illegal"

WHAT?!

 

[rosyposyosy]

been looking online. forest grove says nothing about chickens!! the feed store sells chicks! this is crazy

 

[Mac in Wisco]

It may take a little leg work then. If they aren't helpful over the phone you can go down there and review the statutes yourself.

If it's a stray cat causing your problems, get rid of it. You don't have to tell your neighbors what became of it.

Where did you find their statutes online?

 

[rosyposyosy]

ok. so there is a website that if you google forest grove, OR and chickens this is the one thats first on the list. i cant open it.


when i try it doesnt work

www.ci.forest-grove.or.us/

 

[DuckLady]

Looks like the website is down.

 

[jessied1227]

Doesn't work for me either, but I googled forest grove, or municipal codes and found this:

9.622 CONDITIONAL USES PERMITTED. The following uses and their accessory uses are permitted as conditional uses in accordance with Section 9.870 et. seq. of this ordinance:
(1) Neighborhood or community recreation centers.
(2) Golf courses except miniature courses and driving ranges.
(3) Schools--primary, elementary, junior high, senior high, college or university, private, parochial or public.
(4) Governmental structures and uses, including fire stations.
(5) Churches.
(6) Manufactured dwelling parks (See Section 9.780).
(7) Manufactured home subdivisions (See Section 9.770).
(8) Day care institutions.
(9) Agricultural use of land such as truck farming and horticulture, but excluding commercial buildings or structures and excluding the keeping of livestock and poultry other than ordinary household pets.
(10) Neighborhood Store (see 9.629)

The page is here:
http://www.rdrop.com/~mbliss/rso.htm#Top

According to this, it says they have to be pets.

It's an old page, and it is proposed residential standards, but you better check it out further.

Hey, chickens are pets, right?

Good Luck.
Jess

 

[wclawrence]

Dismiss the cat from his duties, then find out about the chicken laws. It is not illegal to own chickens anywhere that I am aware of in the US. Good luck, especially getting rid of the feline nuisance.
My chickens are household pets, and they are regular, too.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Time to go on the offensive. She has 9 cats? There is probably
an ordinance against that. Try and find it. Did anyone from the
town approach you yet? You only have 3 hens? How much land
do you have? How far are the chickens from any neighbors land?

I think you have a strong case right now and you probably just ticked
off a freik with nine cats. Sorry to cat owners but if you own 9 cats
you need counseling (excluding legitimate rescues).


This is total crap. I'll spare my rant on why cats don't belong free.
If she was my neighbor her cats would disappear one by one. I
know this doesn't help but I am so mad you have to deal with this.

Don