- Mar 11, 2014
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Local city council has had a couple meetings. At first they seemed favorable to making chickens OK in town. The current ordinance says that birds are excluded from the prohibited livestock list as are rabbits and fish. A couple people in town thought that ment that chickens were ok- in fact, history proves that when that ordinance came into effect the mayor at the time had cages and cages of birds and such in his backyard and bred and sold them. City hall claims that "birds" doesn't mean chickens now though. The last meeting they had the first reading of the proposed updated ordinance that states-
"Livestock prohibited. No person shall keep or feed any livestock within the city limits. The term livestock shall mean any animal which is raised for normal agricultural purposes, including, but not exclusively, other fowl, hogs, cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, etc."
Besides being slightly out of order (other fowl should come AFTER chickens) the new ordinance is shockingly ambiguous. The "not exclusively" and "etc." leave the definition up to whoever in city hall decides they dont want your pet in town. Rabbits can even fall into their category of "etc." and "not exclusively" and "raised for normal agricultural purposes."
The mayor is strongly urging us to take this to a city wide vote come November. I have to do a petition to get it to be able to become a referendum though...which means educating the public.... knocking on doors etc.
I dont know how to do this or where to start. Any thoughts, links, advice? Thanks!
Crystal
"Livestock prohibited. No person shall keep or feed any livestock within the city limits. The term livestock shall mean any animal which is raised for normal agricultural purposes, including, but not exclusively, other fowl, hogs, cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, etc."
Besides being slightly out of order (other fowl should come AFTER chickens) the new ordinance is shockingly ambiguous. The "not exclusively" and "etc." leave the definition up to whoever in city hall decides they dont want your pet in town. Rabbits can even fall into their category of "etc." and "not exclusively" and "raised for normal agricultural purposes."
The mayor is strongly urging us to take this to a city wide vote come November. I have to do a petition to get it to be able to become a referendum though...which means educating the public.... knocking on doors etc.
I dont know how to do this or where to start. Any thoughts, links, advice? Thanks!
Crystal
