Link to fair and well-written chicken bylaw

[SewingDiva]

We live outside Boston and our town is suburban/urban - the commuter rail is at the end of my street. Luckily, our town has an enlightened view on keeping chickens, and I think the bylaw is very well written and easy to understand. It's a good example of how a back yard chicken bylaw can be fairly applied in a developed, non-rural, non-agricultural region. In my town this issue is regulated by the Board of Health.

So here is a link to the PDF of the regulation - if you’re in a battle to change your local bylaws, you can always adapt this language for your local conditions:

Regulations for the Control of Animals in the Town of Westwood

Statutes and bylaws are public records and not subject to copyright law, so steal away! When it comes to legal language, it’s much easier to adapt from an existing source than it is to write legal language from scratch. I’m a paralegal and I do this all the time (and so does every attorney I’ve ever worked with.)

~Phyllis

P.S. – The regulations in the PDF also address (and allow) other types of animals: horses, pigs, goats and game fowl.

 

[Davaroo]

Thanks Phyllis

 

[MooseHillFarm]

That's excellent information to have, thanks for sharing
it. It's very useful to know what regulations other communities have passed on poultry keeping.

Such "enlightened" views, especially coming from a suburban/urban area like yours, could be held up as an example to a reluctant town or city government. When we see laws that have passed elsewhere, we can also spot what the potential objections to chickens might be in our own community.

Maybe the powers that be have visions of backyard slaughter, unsightly coops, or chickens running wild in the streets. If the issues are addressed, and positive examples provided, hopefully the objections can be overcome.

My area is rural gone recently suburban, livestock and poultry permitted. McMansions going up, so figure it's only a matter of time before I deal with this first hand.

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
You make an excellent point I didn’t think of! We have the same type of development happening in Westwood. Its much more a town of in-ground pools and tennis courts than it is of chicken coops.

In a situation where a chicken owner is trying to change a bylaw, or in a situation like yours where development is taking place at a pace faster than these types of individual local rights are being protected, part of the administrative process is that community leaders generally will look to other jurisdictions (towns, counties, cities, townships, boroughs etc) to see how this issue has been handled elsewhere.

Providing proof of how well chicken bylaws have worked in other communities is can be a persuasive argument when trying to change regulations in one's own community.

~Phyllis