*The City of San Diego, California - Chicken and Gamebird / Fowl Law*

[mrsbrcant]

I need help getting a permit for "therapy" chickens. I live in a mobile home but own the land that I sit on. I live in an HOA and we are considered "condos". We live in El Cajon, but are governed by the County of San Diego.

I have had chickens in the past but the HOA made me get rid of them. The chickens really helped with my depression and other medical issues. I think that I can get a prescription from my doctor for "therapy" chickens, but my HOA wants a permit. Can you help me??

Sincerely,
Inga King
619-312-2369

Does your HOA want your chicken to be a certified therapy animal? This would mean training for you and your chicken team. Pet Partners(formally the Delta society) certifies pet/human teams and is one of the few organizations that works with animals other than dogs. You may be able to get some sort of card or tag but I'm not sure for animals other than dogs and cats. My disabled niece got a dog from the pound and for a small fee with no training or evaluation she got a tag saying the dog was a service dog and she could take the dog into all kinds of places. Of course with no training/animal evaluation it was a disaster and the dog is now mine but it was really easy getting the tag. So if it were a dog you wouldn't have a problem, but I'm not sure the law will support a chicken as a service animal since it can't be trained to assist the way a dog can.

 

[niqueie]

I am having a problem with the neighborhood code compliance dept. I visited the office before I built my coop to make sure I could build it there. I spoke with someone there and we went over all the maps on the computer together. He told me that from what he could see we were fine to build it. 2 months later I got 2 visits to my coop. The code officers visited 2 times and 3 different people looked at it. They remarked about how it was well built. They visited in mid-October. Then I heard nothing from them for 4 months. I just heard from them 2 weeks ago. They said, sorry for the delay, but they thought after looking at it and research that the coop wasn't even on my property. Peter kann is the compliance officer. When I said it was definitely on my property, then he said he'd look at it some more. He said if it's on the property then it will be fine. He called today and said yes it's on the property and that now he needs to confirm with the person that we talked to at the city planning that it's not in the open space area. He said that the person I talked to better remember the conversation I had with him 5-6 months ago. He also said that the guy I talked to, should have looked at the paper maps and not at the computer. He also said that he has to research some more.

I feel like its a witch hunt at this point. I can't understand why 3 different code compliance officers need to come out to see my coop. Then take 4 months to research and then expect someone to remember a conversation that occurred 6 months ago. Also he's searching maps that were not available to me when I went to the city prior to building my coop. I have 15 chickens and a coop that is far away (>100 feet) from any neighbors. I don't know what to do or who to complain to. I feel that the new chicken laws were to free me from my neighbors complaints. My immediate neighbors love that I have chickens. It's my across and 4 down neighbors that have complained because they don't like that they can see my coop from their front yard. It's on a hill and is visible. What can I do? Who should I talk to?

 

[penaskovic]

just curious, why did your neighbor call? how many chickens did you have? we built an enclosure, its not quite 50' but we had no other place to put it. we have a small coop that we could place in the middle of the yard, if an inspection should occur. Im not sure how they can regulate it. if they stop at our house and our coop is in the center within the 50' rules, cant the chickens roam our yard for exercise but actually nest in a coop that can be transferred anywhere?

 

[yordi]

I have a beautiful yellow roster and the city came and told me i need to get rid of him but i dont want to hes so cool

 

[domino556]

Hi,I want guinea fowl but don't know if the male guineas are legal in Santa Rosa California were I live.Do you know?

 

[Citi Chick]

does anyone have suggestions on getting HOA to approve chickens? my city, Encinitas, allows it, but HOA not allow