draft of new ordinance for our town!

[pattycake]

I used to live in your town, MTchick -- Missoula is a great city and I miss it dearly. It's even better now that it allows chickens!! Fresh eggs at the farmer's market -- what could be better?

 

[devora]

MTChick:
Good for your town! Chickens can brighten a person’s day and who wouldn’t want that?

What does a person living under an ordinance do when they need to put down a hen for illness? We live in the countryside and, I assume, will just kill it ourselves (Oh, I hope that doesn’t happen!). Would town folk take their chicken to a vet to have it killed? Or does ‘slaughter’ mean to kill for food?

I’m fascinated that a town in Montana, which I think of as so vast and rural, would not have allowed chickens! I’m going to have to check into our local ordinance to see what it’s like in Ukiah (pop 15K).

 

[MTchick]

Slaughter traditionally means to kill lots of things at once- you don't really slaughter one chicken, you just kill it. You slaughter 20 of them.

There has been talk of removing that from the ordinance because so many people are thinking along your lines- they misinterpret the intent of that part of the ordinance (to prevent people from killing a whole bunch of chickens in their backyard i.e. disturbing the peace) and think that it means you can't even kill one. I suspect it won't be in the final draft, which is fine with me. Misinterpretation is not desirable!

Montana IS vast and rural, but Missoula itself is a city of about 70,000 people mostly living on 45x100 ft lots. It is tucked up under a series of mountains and rivers, surrounded on all sides by publicly owned lands, so it is pretty compact.

-MTchick

 

[carla]

MT-
I agree with the "slaughter" issue. It is prob. better to define what is meant than to leave it to the interpretation of whomever is enforcing the ordinance that day/week/year.

Also - bothersome noise can be a subjective opinion. On the weekends, when my hens do there "just layed and egg" cackle - I worry that the one neighbor will decide to take exception to it. For the most part the chickens are quiet, but if someone really wants to object, they could by saying noise is excessive.

Just my 1 cent worth. Been through this with our township, and can "legally" have the flock. Guess I will always have the dread of losing them again.

Carla