We need your help-Got another letter from the town

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
I think the people in charge come up with a lot of pat answers that are more accurately described as myths. Someone doesnt want you to have them. You can fight if you have the fortitude. Hang in there.

Now I have another problem. He said if I wanted to have the ordinance changed I would have to my yard surveyed because it's on "wetlands", there is tiny, tiny stream next to my house, much less wetlands

That is going to cost $2,000-3,000 just to have my yard surveyed and they might not even change it. Has anyone heard this before?

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
I think the people in charge come up with a lot of pat answers that are more accurately described as myths. Someone doesnt want you to have them. You can fight if you have the fortitude. Hang in there.

Yeah, they gave you that line because they don't see it as an important issue. Now if it was THEIR dog, they'd be up in arms. Are there any kind of organic farmers or Michael Pollan self-sufficent food-movement types in your town that could stand with you?

It sounds like they need an education and to see precedents from other towns of how people address the domesticated chicken problem. I'd say a chicken is a LOT more domesticated than a parrot or a ferret or llama!

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
I think the people in charge come up with a lot of pat answers that are more accurately described as myths. Someone doesnt want you to have them. You can fight if you have the fortitude. Hang in there.

Yeah, they gave you that line because they don't see it as an important issue. Now if it was THEIR dog, they'd be up in arms. Are there any kind of organic farmers or Michael Pollan self-sufficent food-movement types in your town that could stand with you?

I honestly don't know, but will try and find out. I know other CT BYCer's will help us though, and stand with us.

 

[perfectly_polish]

I'm going to write a letter to our local news paper. Anyone have any ideas? Or maybe everyone from BYC can write them a letter

 

[MooseHillFarm]

Quote:
Just read lots of letters and e-mails written by BYC members to the Sanford NC city government. They're the ones threatening to fine the chicken owners $100 per day. You can get some great ideas for your letter in that thread.

Also; if you post the name, address and e-mail of your local paper, I'm sure many of us will write too. Good luck, and be sure to show us your letter! I'm going to start writing mine.

 

[kinnip]

These gooberment shenanigans are starting to really scare me. We lucked out with the lot that time forgot. We're surrounded by residential areas, but are still zoned ag. When the Wal-Mart complex popped up across the street, I started sweating. According to local small farmers, I don't have much to fear if I'm not selling meat birds. Apparently, the constellation of poultry CAFOs around here (Pilgrim's Pride) don't care for competition. I guess it's because they know everyone has to watch their diseased, nearly dead, bald, overcrowded birds being trucked to the processing plant (sorry, had to get that out). Beyond the threat from big business, there's a new committee within the city council that's been formed with a mind to urbanizing and 'standardizing' Carrollton. I wonder how many of these cities think they're making the place more appealing to the commuter crowd by erasing all vestiges of 'country living'. Is there a nationwide advocacy group for maintaining our right to keep our own livestock? There should be!! No one is asking to drag a screaming calf into their front yard and shoot it in front of the neighbors kids. There are already laws in place regarding appropriate husbandry practices. You can't let a dog roam where it will (though some people do it anyway). If your place smells too bad because you have a hundred cats in your house, cops will pay you a visit. Why can't these laws be extended to small livestock? Can't we all just get along?

 

[Rosalind]

Wetlands are more determined by the type of plants growing there than anything else; it depends on state regulations of what they consider a wetland. When I lived in PA, the rule was that it had to be submerged 2 weeks out of a year, so developers would build on top of a wetland, then argue that it was OK because they were going to build a new wetland that would be just as good. Their idea of a "new wetland, just as good" consisted of running lawn sprinklers full blast for two weeks so that one lot in the development stayed soggy. When the lot dried out, they'd build a house on that, too. Then we'd get a real snowy winter followed by a wet spring, and the whole development would be flooded out and the residents would all cry, "woe is us!" and everyone's homeowners' insurance would go through the roof, we'd be required to buy federal flood insurance and there'd be all this emergency whatnot that was taxpayer-funded.

Basically, when it was a dry year, the developers made big bucks building houses on wetlands. When it was a wet year, the taxpayers and the local homeowners paid through the nose to deal with the resulting flooding. As a taxpayer and a homeowner, I say we should send the cleanup and repair bills to the developers who thought it was a good idea to build on a wetland in the first place.

Anyway, my point being, there's a reason for laws about wetland protection. But if half your yard is wetlands, I don't understand why they allowed a house to be built there to begin with. Around here, if you buy undeveloped land instead of a lot, and you can't get it perced, then you can't build on it in the first place. And the whole wetlands issue seems irrelevant anyways; plenty of agricultural zones also contain wetlands in the form of farm ponds.

I think you need a real estate lawyer. Seems like they are throwing up a bunch of horse puckey because they figure you can't afford a lawyer. Whenever I ran into these attitudes in Massachusetts, the folks who said, "You'll need to file papers and get XYZ done, and just to let you know, it costs (outrageous amount of money)" all seemed really shocked when I didn't bat an eyelash and said, "OK, I'll have my real estate lawyer handle all that, can I get an official address for the paperwork?" Magically, as soon as I mentioned that my lawyer would handle things, they didn't cost much at all and were easy-peasy and routine everyday things they could suddenly handle, no problem.

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
Just read lots of letters and e-mails written by BYC members to the Sanford NC city government. They're the ones threatening to fine the chicken owners $100 per day. You can get some great ideas for your letter in that thread.

Also; if you post the name, address and e-mail of your local paper, I'm sure many of us will write too. Good luck, and be sure to show us your letter! I'm going to start writing mine.

Here's the address for the newsper:

47 Eugene O'Neill Drive
P.O. Box 1231
New London, CT
06320-1231
(800) 542-3354 or
(860) 442-2200

Or you can e-mail https://campus.theday.com/frm_contactus.aspx or do both

 

[Arctichicken]

Quote:
We keep the dogs out, one in the chicken pen, one next to the chicken pen, and the other one on the other side of the yard to keep coyotes, and racoons away. Knowing my dogs, they would probably bite someone if they came into our yard, especially my heeler, she means business. But I'll keep that in mind, I would be devastated if something happened to the dogs.

I know in one town we lived in the meter readers would get bit and the dog would have to be put down

even though the meter reader had entered your yard. I happened to see her come into my yard one day when my Heeler/GSD mix was out. She then left the gate open.

No wonder there were so many loose dogs once a month around town. I think she was a dog-hater. We tried really hard to make sure the dogs were put away in the house on that day. They wouldn't even knock on your door first to say they were there.

An option might be to padlock your gates. But then you'd always have to have your key with you. We resorted to this with one crazy landlord who thought it was her right to inspect the place once a week. She had to knock on our door to get into the yard to protect her from getting bit by our dogs that hated her. We didn't stay at that house for long. LOL

My hubby had a dog (blue tick) and had no trespassing sign and beware of dog signs and danger signs. What happened... the stupid meter man didn't want to wait for hubby to put up the dog like he was told and came on in the gate anyways. Meter man was attacked and badly injured (still his own fault, he was told to wait). He tried to sue my hubby and lost because we had signs posted everywhere regarding the dog. "Like you can sue the crocodile's owner when your stupid enough to stick your hand in the water."

Good Luck to you I hope you win!

 

[Grass]

i grew up in a city here with a population of almost 25,000 it allows it's residents to house 3 hens.they do however have an ordinance about roosters because of noise.maybe you can apply for a grandfather clause in the new ordinance, so current owners can keep them still,seeing that you have had your chickens this many years and till just now they starting to complain. i for one am going to voice my opinion to your local paper in a letter.it's probably just a couple council members throwing a hissy because they have never even been on a farm let alone know how to raise an animal.i'd confront the council and ask how many of them actually have pets of there own.i'm guessing it will be limited to just a couple who do.as long as people aren't complaining there shouldn't be any reason for them to change the ordinance.fight the good fight and stand to your guns.God knows in these times we all need to.