Trouble in Paradise

[ChickenCanoe]

My little bit of chicken heaven is in jeopardy.
Apparently a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about my chicken preservation program alarmed the mayor of Black Jack because of the mere presence of chickens within the city limits.
This is a city, incorporated in 1970, yet where my family has been raising chickens almost continuously since the 1870s.
There are many chicken (and rooster) owners in this semi rural north county community. It has come to my attention that one of the Mayor's neighbors has chickens.
I received a letter from the city that I am in violation of city code, even though 5 other Black Jack chicken owners (3 of which live on my road within a mile of my house) besides myself and the author of the Post article researched and could find no violations. According to the letter, I'm accused of having a "Poultry Farm". I've worked on poultry farms, worked in the feedmill industry where a poultry farm consists of tens of thousands of birds packed in confined housing. Mine isn't a poultry farm. The largest group I have is 8 birds.
According to the letter I must remove my birds from the property by July 2.
There has been no attempt to find other chicken owners in town nor ask them to remove their chickens.
I'm asking for equal treatment under the law.
As far as roosters go, I've been in continuous contact with neighbors and all tell me they are not a problem.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My neighbors, fellow Black Jack resident chicken owners, St. Louis Backyard Meetup members and the press attended the next city council meeting which opened a firestorm of media attention in papers, TV and radio. Even a rap station reported and were definitely in my corner.

Here are links to recent TV news coverage, in case anyone missed them, and links to the original stories that sparked the issue...

The problems started with the following newspaper article

http://www.stltoday.c...

Then the citation came and we descended on city hall en masse

http://www.stltoday.c...

http://fox2now.com/20...

http://www.kmov.com/v...

http://maplewood-brentwood.patch.com/blog_posts/black-jacks-chicken-saga-continues

check out the comments in all the stories. Every single one is supportive of me and negative to the city and mayor.

http://snewpy.com/2006/08/norman-mccourt-where-are-you/

So I'm not sure what the future holds for my Black Penedesenca flocks and their breeding program.

 

[Kikiriki]

When an ordinance is created or made more restrictive than it previously was they almost always have to have a grandfather clause. An exception would be something immediately dangerous to life, like banning wells if the groundwater is contaminated, I think. so even if they have an ordinance you should be grandfathered in since your family has such a long history of property use...can you find photos from several generations that show the chickens or the chicken coop? If it is the same one that has been in use, maybe you can have it named to the historical register of buildings under a new category: chicken homes!

I am so aggravated at how our rights to have unmanipulated food are being whittled away, let alone the right to keep a few chickens for pets. My chicken coop is right right next to my porch. It does not stink and if it did I would notice it before even my closest neighbor. It is 10 feet away from me as I type this!

My chickens have their grown up voices now. They make less noise than the neighborhood dogs, the screeching blackbirds and bluejays, and even the hawk calls are louder. They make such a gentle sound as they go about their business of keeping my bug population under control. In the summer, I could not previously go into the corner where they live because it was a spider and mosquito haven...the leaf litter harbored all kinds of other bugs, too. Mosquitos carry encephalitis, West Nile, and malaria (which is making a comeback here in the south), and I have had a bad mosquito problem in this yard since I bought the house--the chickens are either eating them or disturbing the places where they hatched, because I have far fewer mosquitoes than before, and none in their run/coop area which had been the worst spot in the yard. I have seen the chickens gobble up carpenter ants and their eggs. They are protecting my home from wood eating bugs.

It is inconceivable to imagine there is a way to control avian diseases as there are far more wild birds that range widely than there are domestic chickens, and the chickens are confined to my backyard, so prohibiting chickens out of a fear of hosting an avian disease is utter nonsense.

I have two dogs and if I dont scoop their waste each week, the yard smells and becomes a minefield of piles of poo because even with rain it does not mix into soil quickly. The chicken poo from three chickens in one week is probably near the quantity of one day of poo from the medium and large dog. The dog waste is good for nothing. I can compost the chicken waste and use it for the plants on my property.

I really cannot understand what is wrong with people who freak out at the sight of a clutch of chickens and feel the need to control what their neighbors do on their own property when it in no way causes any harm to them! I cant imagine what is gained by prohibiting chickens from the average backyard: who would rather use poison than a natural pest control that also provides a delicious and healthy food? Watching the chickens is also a great stress relief and can even make me laugh out loud...they are good for my mental health! Therefore, taking them away would indeed cause me direct harm and even could affect my long term health due to higher stress. Healthy life, food liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Chickens!

 

[sumi]

 

[joan1708]

I unfortunately am starting to understand some of the anti-chicken craziness after following this website for about a year. I find it frustrating that there are so many city coops that are not adequately predator and vermin proofed (chicken wired coops mostly). I would not want to live next to people with coops like that, because the raccoons, possums, mice and rats will be on the way in short order. These are likely the same people who want to shoot your dog because the dogs have been lured to the unprotected chickens. Having said that, in my mind, wild bird feeders bring in as much vermin as poorly designed chicken coops and no one wants to outlaw them.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

I faced a somewhat similar problems here several years ago when we had a business, except the city decided it did not like my banner sign. I was advised that I had to remove it and pay a fine. It puzzled me because i would see hundreds of similar banner signs all around town, and apparently none of them were being so targeted. I took my video camera and spent about two hours driving around town documenting every single banner sign (as well as every other sign that violated city code) and had enough copies made to send to each city councilperson, along with a note explaining that I was going to speak on the subject at the next public meeting and demand justice. They would not allow me to show the video at the meeting, but I did tell them in the note that I would be HAPPY to show the video to the news media if my concerns weren't addressed. I simply pointed out that a thing called the U. S. Constitution, in the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits selective prosecution, and that I was prepared to fight for my rights. I never heard another word about my banner!