Richardson had hoped would prevent the town from enforcing its Sept. 17 order limiting Rubalcaba to a single rooster until after her appeal is heard.
The order was from the town council NOT a judge, not only that they were aware of an impending hearing which makes it interfering with the courts, a felony.
The police's job was is and was to protect the citizens even from tyrants even in our own system. They failed at their job and stepped over the line violating civil and property rights. Somebody should be jailed for ordering the police to circumvent a court hearing. There should be heavy fines at least. In this case as a former LEO these officers should be ashamed of themselves for shirking their duty.
I went down to visit kathy a month ago and had a great time. I gave her 4 silkies and she gave me two hens. She was clean as were the coops, those birds are taken care of, well fed, etc... yes, she is very close to the neighbors, but there wasnt really alot of crowing going on. Now mind you, that was a month ago. She was holding onto her expensive roos until they reached maturity-she was eliminating alot of them once she looked at the ones worthy or reproduction and such, which I dont blame her, I do the same thing. She did have things all set up to butcher her roos this week, but apparently that went south on her in the news??? She is a sweet woman and very intelligent and the town is at this point being totally unfair to her.
Well now, i'm not taking sides at all. But the article mentions she is on a quarter acre lot in a residential neighborhood. .25 acres is 10,890sf, which is not a lot of space. And she just had 12 roosters carted off for processing (plus roosters left on her property).
i'm all for everyone having the right to do what they want, own chickens, run a business, etc. But she may want to consider moving to an area where she has room to run her business, in an area zoned to allow poultry.
From what i read, it didn't sound like she is a person just raising a couple chickens for show or personal needs, she has 100+ chickens on a small residential lot. Somewhere in all of that, the neighbors need to be taken into consideration.
When we first got chickens we were on .17 acres and zoned for hens only with set-back requirements. We only had a few chickens and i worked very hard to keep them quiet and their pens clean. Now on .5 acres, we can have whatever we want. But i still do not want to distress my neighbors, so the loudest rooster sleeps in our shed at night and i bolt out of bed in the morning when they all fuss to get out of their coops.
i don't know . . . but it sounds like there needs to be some compromise and understanding on both sides of this particular issue.
You know...... it's a wonder they haven't enacted a nationwide law that protects the happiness of neighbors. You know, an ordinance that allows anyone who is annoyed or bothered by their neighbors hobbies, property, dwelling, kids, pets etc to seek immediate and thorough action to halt all activities and/or property that offends, bothers or annoys the neighbors.
Oh wait.....
yeah.......
I can see how that would go HORRIBLY wrong for everyone!
I agree that good fences make for good neighbors... and that folks who want to live in relative peace should abide by their neighbors wants and whims.....
But really, there is the right of the individual... and sometimes those rights overlap and stomp on each others toes.... and sometimes the rights of the individual only apply to that individual and no matter now bothered or vexed the other person may be... sometimes they hold no opposing rights.
edited to add..... when a person's complaint is that offends their senses... smell, sight, hearing etc.... that is a matter of preference and varies from person to person. If your neighbors all decided they didn't like your breed of dog, or musical preferences.... it would be wrong of the town to support any ordinance that takes away the rights of those involved. Too many rights being stripped from people. The idea should be to give people rights. The rights to live their lives and if they harm none... then people should deal with it. And let's face it..... smells and sounds don't harm people. They just bother them. Lots of things bother me...... but I know that people have rights to live the way that they chose and just because I don;t like it doesn't mean they should have their rights stripped away.
And I know... we're talking about ordinances and laws.... but clearly people had to be the driving force behind this whole motion to change ordinances and force officials to ban things like roosters. And all so often when these stories pop up I hear about the neighbors rights. I'm no lawyer...... but I've never heard of neighbors rights. As insensitive as that may seem.
I could almost support the town and the police on sanitation issues, for that I believe no warrant is necessary when the problem is obvious.
The problem here is the police and the town was fully aware of a impending court hearing making their act completely illegal and a felony. Some serious fines against those parties should be in order even if the lady is in the wrong. If I was the judge sitting in the court that the hearing was scheduled for I would be furious.
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I beg to disagree. Police are bound to uphold and enforce the law, not just the portions of the law that make it easier for them to do their jobs.
Well, I have no idea how big this town is that she in.... but I know that around here the 'police' aren't as well informed in matters of the law as they should be.... and it's a good' ole' boy kind of system..... sometimes they don't question when they should. They are more of hired muscle in a lot of cases. We all know that not all police officers live up to the standard that is put forth.
I agree.... if they knew and did it anyways, then that is deplorable. And it may be a small enough town that they think they are above the greater law because their courts and officers all know each other and help smooth these kinds of things over with little resistance. But, we don't know all of the details of every person involved in this and hopefully since it is being brought to light those who acted wrongfully will be held accountable.
So you're right though... I retract my statement... I was trying to be diplomatic in not placing all of the anger and blame on these officers of the law.... but if laws were broken, they are either guilty or ignorant of the law.... and ignorance is no excuse. (Or shouldn't be anyways)