My big fat chicken fight

[Mike & Baby Chicken]

Best of luck! Keep fighting the good fight!

 

[sequoiacyclist]

You know what? Along with the decoys you should play chicken sounds on a loop from a cpu speaker aimed out your window. What is the difference? One is legal and the other is not?

Seriously though, I know what you are going through. I came from a small town surrounded by farm lands that thinks it is too uppity to have "LIVESTOCK" within city limits. I mean...come on! My town boasts about being the AG breadbasket of California and yet you can't have a couple of hens. What kind of backwards thinking is this? We even had neighbors with parrots in their backyards and they were thousands of times more disturbing than a couple of hens would be. I think some people are just really stuck up!

 

[littlegorb]

not only are they stuck up, but very wasteful. my snitch neighbor kaddywampus from me has golf course grass, they use lots of chemicals, water, and mow atleast 2 times a week. they have nothing on their property that is edible. last year i raised probably 2 tons of food on my small lot. using less water than them! this year i even have volunteer heirloom tomatoes coming up, and have given away atleast 60 plants.

when i rehomed my girls,(temporarily) somebody put 2 roosters in with them.. well that was too much so for poops and giggles i brought one of the big red roosters to town and unleashed him on society. he crowed all day and nobody, NOBODY not even the cops showed up or complained. i got a good laugh out of it. you could hear him all over town! well some kids came over and were chasing the roo to try and catch him. i told them "he's not mine, i don't know where he came from but take him"! so they did.

i had to take one of the girls and separate her from the rest as she was getting picked on. i brought her to town and she's here in my yard, and i have not heard one complaint, no cops, nothing. you see i do not play by their rules. i'm just waiting for them to come cite me but they haven't. i dare them to.

so yeah i have thought about the loudspeaker thing, but having that rooster over here for a day was so worth it. when i get the green light to have my girls here, i have one more rooster i will "gift" to the wonderful city of Bayard, Nebraska. for now he serves his purpose, out in the middle of nowhere protecting my girls. he attacked my bf the other day and got a carnival ride.

you all will be the first to know when this chicken fight is over and i have a feeling i have won already. but they are dragging their feet.
the saga continues...

 

[SandyC]

WOW!!! I just read the whole thread. Good for you!!!!!!
I had a fight too. I was told I couldn't have any animals other
than 2 cats, even though my house is away from the village, has
a barn and fencing, but it is just barely in the village. I went
before the village board and they said, "NO". I decided
to go see the regulation for myself in the books and at the very
end of the regulation, after it listed all the things you couldn't have,
it said "unless they are confined behind a proper fence! Dumb people
didn't even know their rules. Needless to say, I now have a rooster, chickens
turkeys and just brought home 3 shetland sheep last weekend!

Good luck on your fight!

 

[jaj121159]

Interesting story. Something to think about. Baynard is located in Morrill County, Nebraska. Morrill County is an "Officially Declared Livestock Friendly County (LFC)" and actually was the first in Nebraska to be declared by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. How does this affect your situation? According to the LFC requirements the cities in each county are supposed to endorse the county's application by issuing a resolution saying the city is livestock friendly. I would check to see if Baynard has done this. I don't think Dept of Ag enforces this city support thing though. Second of all you could get organizations like the Farmer's Union, Center for Rural Affairs and others involved since they do not like livestock friendly and could publicize that a woman in a livestock friendly county cannot keep five chickens. One other thought, have you approached your county commissioner or supervisor to talk to the city on your behalf since your chicken story could be embarrassing to a LFC. The Lincoln Journal Star has done a lot on LFC and maybe your attorney could contact them with your story. Actually, your story is unique because of the doctor's note, but it makes it even more interesting since it is happening in an LFC. I'm in Nebraska county government and have had a doctor's note stop a hog barn from going in the country, but haven't had a case yet where a doctor's note supports allowing animals.

In my personal opinion, Nebraska cities, at least the small 1st class and the 2nd class cities try to act like they're large cities. Most do not allow any type of hunting inside the city limits for instance. I hunted ducks in a city of over 40,000 in Michigan and it was perfectly legal. The cities seem to get some holier than thou attitude when it comes to realizing their real situation. The bigger cities like Omaha and Lincoln don't have this particular problem probably because they know they are a city.

 

[littlegorb]

so sorry sandyc and jaj121159, i just read your posts and although i don't have much time right now, i wanted to atleast respond, and will post more maybe tomorrow. good for you sandy, you did your homework and it really paid off! so happy for you.

jaj121159 i used to live in madison, it was a nice little town then, not sure about now but regardless, you have a wealth of information i am going to have to look into. so far maybe the most helpful to me. i did speak to my lawyer today, and he still has not heard the city's response to his demand letter. he says he will speak to his partner tomorrow and let me know what the next step is. this whole thing is getting sickening, and i am weary. i need resolve and it's not coming very fast. i dread the thought of having to go through another trial, as i am very social phobic. sure i can post here and read others, i communicate by writing, just don't do well in person.

having to drive 36 miles round trip to see my girls and care for them has cost me alot of money in gas, wear and tear on my car, now i had to borrow a car because mine gave out. it's caused great hardship for me, but on the other hand it's still rewarding to have my chickens. i'm hanging in there as long as i can.

as far as contacting officials, i just cannot talk to people. i went through the whole process with the NEOC and feel i should not have to go through anymore as they determined already that there was discrimination.

the conflict of interest issue is most disturbing to me when the city attorney was my attorney first and represented me for my social security. and they turn around and are fighting me! bayard sure has some strange characters running it as far as i'm concerned.

there was a drug raid here this morning, wing unit, and the whole nine yards. they arrested 12 people and seized 500 grams of meth. they have been investigating this since january of 2008!!! and it took them this long to make arrests? it took them 2 months to come down on me for my hens, and arrest me, put me through a trial, and are still fighting me, as the county attorney jean rhodes said, "we will fight this tooth and nail. " wow, they are tough here.

jaj121159 please stay in touch, and thank you for your input, i appreciate it very much.

 

[jaj121159]

Any progress in the fight?

 

[littlegorb]

my attorney is preparing the lawsuit now, for my review. i can't wait for this cloud to go away. i am broke from spending all my extra money on gas to go care for them and visit them. what a relief it will be if i do prevail, maybe i can go in public again and not feel so ashamed. even my kids have been teased about it, which i feel terrible about. they don't deserve ridicule...i chose to live in this town because i thought it was a nice place,with a good school system and community.

i will post as soon as anything develops, and i still appreciate any advice.

 

[Long Last Farm]

"when i rehomed my girls,(temporarily) somebody put 2 roosters in with them.. well that was too much so for poops and giggles i brought one of the big red roosters to town and unleashed him on society. he crowed all day and nobody, NOBODY not even the cops showed up or complained. i got a good laugh out of it. you could hear him all over town! well some kids came over and were chasing the roo to try and catch him. i told them "he's not mine, i don't know where he came from but take him"! so they did."



Let me first say I have ALOT of sympathy for your plight! It sounds as if you and your chicks were bothering no one and that you were taking excellent care of your animals!

However..... Am I reading that paragraph above correctly? You let a rooster loose, and then told children you didn't know where he came from ( which wasn't true), an d that he wasn't yours ( which was true) and told them to take him ( the rooster) and they did?

Don't you think that was irresponsible? What happened to the rooster? Read through various posts on BYC and see how often children are caught abusing animals!
Sorry, but you are responsible for the welfare and safety of the rooster! Would you have let one of your own birds loose, and let children "take her?"

Please let us know what became of the rooster......

 

[littlegorb]

i understand concern for the rooster. the kids one lives a few houses down, the other was a cousin of hers, and they are in 4-H. so i was happy to let the rooster go with them. now there are kids in the neighborhood who i would not have let take him, yes that would be irresponsible but i felt good letting him go with these others. they raise rabbits and love animals. as far as telling a lie, i only did so because i have a reason not to trust certain information in this town. they did take the rooster to a country home at their cousin's so all turned out well with the rooster.