Chickens for Ridley Township, PA

[loplover3476]

Cool! I should probably start doing that once I ask my parents. I know my mom will be happy!

 

[serfmunke]

Any progress with this? I am in Ridley Park, not sure if that means the rules are different. We have two hens, cooped up against the house. We spoke with our neighbors before we got the chickens, the neighbors do not care. So I am curious what the status is, anyone still around?

 

[Moonthistle57]

I also live in Ridley Township, own my home and would love to have 2 or 3 chickens, but since my land is not an acre, cannot. I would be very interested in trying to get this ordinance changed to allow small homeowners to have a small flock.

I noticed that you didn't get enough signatures on your petition and I would love to help you with that. Perhaps we could post some flyers at the township building for anyone who would like to work towards accomplishing this and get a bunch of like-minded people together to help educate the lawmakers and get this rescinded. What do you think?

Would you like to work together so we can become proud chicken owners?

ps (the part about native to Ridley is only speaking of the snakes, not chickens.)

 

[serfmunke]

This thread seems pretty dead. I have time to dedicate to legalizing chickens in 19078 once summer is over. Until then, we are booked solid!

 

[Moonthistle57]

This thread is pretty dead, but I did want to update everyone. I work in a law office, so I showed several lawyers the ordinance for Ridley Township. Every one of them said that a judge would interpret that part that says "native to Ridley Township" as pertaining to the snakes only and not to the rest of the animals. You can have chickens if you have over 1 acre of land. Everyone else is running the risk of being convicted and fined up to $1000. Based upon this, I'm not willing to take the chance since I'm a single mom and even though I am a homeowner, I don't have a lot of wiggle room financially. Good luck to the rest of you who are keeping them illegally. I'm going to see about getting a variance as none of my neighbors care, except the SS guy across the street who will call just because he can. Yes, he is that miserable.

 

[serfmunke]

I wonder if a church would allow us to put in a chicken hutch/run? There is the one community garden at a church. Curious if chickens could be a part of that, if there is one acre...

 

[Moonthistle57]

Interesting idea. The ordinances do allow for chickens if you have over one acre.

 

[tridentk9]

Find out the ordinances for everyone around you. Then chart out the rules. Using that, visit all the local Animal Controls to hear their feelings, why and what their problems are with keeping chickens, ie noise, sanitation, etc. Ridley's "dog rules" actually cover noise and sanitation, some of the rules say "dog or other animals" so it IS covered if they remove chickens from the farm animal definition.

Now- any Animal Control that puts you off, refuses to answer, etc- just file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. Hmm, good idea anyway. Any of the Animal Controls that are run by Police Dep'ts? File a request with the PD too. FOIA requests HAVE to be answered except in rare circumstances (OK, not so rare anymore). Some will easily answer the request, others will only answer the specific question. With the right questions this will give you how many citations, seizures, fines, etc.They may not be able to tell you how many complaints at the Police Dept, but Animal Control should have that.

Now that you have all the information, it's time to involve the press. Make it a feel good story- look what great pets chickens are, they not only help us as a pet but they supply eggs too. It's just too bad that all these other areas allow them and Ridley no longer does. The law would be so easy to change, other laws already cover the potential problems of having chickens (noise, sanitation). All it takes is removing chicken from the definition of Farm Animal.

With the news story- people should be more aware and more willing to sign your petition.

Petition goes to a member of the city council that is on your side (sound them out with informal, let's get to know each other visits).

Phew. I've had to type this out twice as kindle hiccuped and lost the first one.

http://www.foiadvocates.com/records.html

 

[Moonthistle57]

Wow! thank you! Great ideas.

 

[FARMDAD]

Hi, everybody. I'm new to backyard chickens, and sort of new to chickens in general. It all started last year, 2012, when I joined 4-H. I was immediately fascinated by all of the different chicken breeds, not knowing that the common leghorn was not the only kind of chicken. Over that time, I joined the poultry showmanship program and learned a lot about my bird, Christi. We won a lot of ribbons together. She was a black Silkie, and I would talk to her and she'd answer back. She was real nice and I wanted her BAD. I asked my mom if we could have her, and she said we could if it was allowed where we live. When I got home, I checked online, and apparently, we cannot own chickens, or any other poultry in Ridley. This just broke my heart. I've tried other ways of changing the law, but they didn't seem to work. I started this petition, http://www.thepetitionsite.com/528/...ley/#13620883951092&action=fb_connect&fb_id=0 but I didn't get enough signatures. Then I stumbled onto a site called www.chicken-revolution.com and it told me to come to you guys. i'm not exactly sure how to do this, but it said something about starting meetings. I'll figure out a time then if anybody replies to this. I just don't want to feel like the only one who cares.

I would like to have some chickens for pets and eggs as well. It is good for the kids to learn how to care for animals and to enjoy the benefit of their work.