Someone keeps making complaints about my chickens! (Update post #222!)

[Picky Chicky]

Can people like these anonymous complainers get into trouble for falsely making reports? Personally I am kind of witchy and would go door to door and ask them to their face if they have a problem with my chickens. I know all my neighbors except for 1 - and I dare them to ever make a complaint.

Ooooh I'm feeling fiesty today!

 

[Andora]

Quote:
I wish I was that bold!

I've had most of my neighbors tell me that they like the chickens, they ask how they are doing all the time, some of them want to come back and see them and feed them treats or bring their kids over to see and hold them.

And I don't know any lawyers, but I sure wish I did! I made my husband call the enforcer back. He didn't answer so my DH left a message. I'm kind of on pins and needles waiting to see what he's going to say next.

 

[jerseygirl1]

I agree, maybe you can hire an attorney just to write a letter, it shouldn't be that much money, just stating that this is really starting to turn into harassment. That may work
Are you sure it's a neighbor, and not someone else that may hold a grudge and can only stoop this low to do something this rude?

 

[AHappychick]

if you don't want to spend the money since you don't know of an atty that would do it for free I would do this instead:

write a well written letter documenting all the times, what happened etc since the first visit. then quote the zoning codes so that there is no confusion. then send a copy to everyone involved with a CC to your local news, congress person, mayor and anyone else you can think of. Make sure all the people you have sent it to can see the others that will be receiving a copy in the CC part. Hopefully that will make them see that you mean business and are not going to quietly let people harass you when you are with in the law. Even if the big wigs never read the letter or care the people bothering you wont know that.

 

[redhen]

I'm sorry, its me..
I'll stop..

 

[tailsnfeathers]

Get an ostrich!

 

[Andora]

I called and asked to speak to the supervisor of the code inspector guys and he actually answered his phone! And he wasn't rude at all, unlike the enforcers who have come to my house.

He pulled up my file and said that the anonymous person filed another complaint yesterday, and so by law he had to send someone out to my house to investigate. I guess that makes sense. He told me that the complaints all say the same thing--chickens in their yard destroying their plants, and chickens not penned or caged in my yard.

Well the chickens don't have to be penned in my yard, and the supervisor confirmed that. ONE chicken got out of my yard like 2 weeks ago, and it was never out long enough to damage any plants...one chicken can't do THAT much damage. They do have a large pen in my yard, by the way, but sometimes I let them out or they squeeze out of a tiny gap in the fence, which doesn't bother me because they're just out in my fenced in yard.

The funny thing is, I checked on my chickens every half an hour yesterday. The white chicken that climbs the fence with her toes has been locked up for at least 4 days now in an 8 ft. totally enclosed run. No chickens got out yesterday or the day before. I don't know what this person had to complain about. It seems they must be lying and complaining now just to complain?

So I guess the real issue is a neighbor is going to keep complaining no matter what.

We got new neighbors in July. One day after they moved their stuff in, I got the first visit/complaint. They left and didn't finish moving in until a month later, and as soon as they came back I got another complaint...and then another...and another...so I think it has to be them.

I'm kind of laughing that they got the health department to come out and investigate. The health department wrote down that there was no odor, minimal (normal) flies, and all appeared in order. Then they asked me a million questions about my chickens and their breeds and stuff, they thought they were interesting.

The woman bought the house with a cash settlement from her divorce (old neighbors told us) and she doesn't seem to have a car. She has two college age sons and they share the one car to go to classes, it appears. I'm guessing she sits inside all day staring into my yard looking for something to complain about.

I'm fully expecting her to call the police next to file a noise complaint because of my roosters, but I seriously don't think my birds disturb the peace any more than the neighbors' dogs barking for an hour at 3 in the morning all the time, you know? (Come to think of it, I should ask the neighbors if they've had any complaints LOL.)

I think her end goal is to force me to get rid of the chickens, which will NEVER happen. She knew I had chickens before she moved in. Why did she buy the house if she hates living next door to chickens??

I am sooo frustrated right now. I'm trying to convince my husband to invest in a privacy fence, even though we really can't afford it right now. I just want to be left alone.

 

[wombat]

I'm surprised that we've never had a visit regarding our chickens. We have a crazy neighbor who made a habit of making anonymous calls to the police and telling them that our dangerous dogs were running at large. One time a cop showed up on our porch at freakin' midnight over this. I explained to him that we had a fenced yard, and the dog had been inside the house for HOURS, and was certainly not "at large." He then demanded to know where the "other dogs" were. I told him I'd be right back, and I fetched the ashes urn we'd gotten back from the vet. I showed him that, told him there had only ever been one other dog, and that she'd been dead for over six months, and so had not been running at large either. That suddenly changed his tone. I told him that said neighbors had somehow gotten it into their heads that my dog was "running at large" if he was not chained, even though I have a fenced yard and the dog is within said fence.

(We live on what used to be farm land, and these neighbors had gotten used to using the back acre of our property as though it was their own over the course of many years before we bought, told us so, and were quite pssd off when we fenced it ... they act like we stole "their" property)

I told the cop that as I knew who the anonymous caller was, and I knew that he knew as well, it was up to him as to which one of us did something about the harassment. I told him that I was getting dang tired of them calling me while drunk at weird hours, and with their sending the police to my house for no reason, so one or the other of us was gonna do something about it that very night. He got the picture. They have not bothered us in years.

Usually these reports come from one neighborhood crank who gets all happy pestering other people just because they can. Perhaps one of your more fair-minded public servants can be persuaded to go have a chat with the complaintant, if they've seen repeatedly that you are doing nothing wrong.

 

[Andora]

Quote:

I really want peacocks! Or emus! I wonder how those are considered under city codes...

 

[Andora]

Quote:
If it continues to happen for no reason, maybe I could call the police and ask them to talk to her? I really like that idea! I would have to be 100% sure it was that neighbor though, otherwise I'd feel like an a$$ if it wasn't.