Chicken Council

City Council on Monday can decide if they want to continue to “protect” Regina from live chickens, or if they want to join the 21st century. Here’s a submission I’ll present to council on Monday at 5:30PM at City Hall. I hope to see you there too.

Presentation to City Council
September 20, 2010
Submitted by email

The City of Regina is currently “protecting” citizens from chickens. Louder birds and more dangerous dogs are allowed in the city under the current animal bylaw, but chickens and other reasonable small
pets/livestock are not. Please change that, by amending the sections of the bylaw that prevents people from keeping a reasonable number of small animals for pets or personal-use livestock.

The report presented to the committee recommending no changes to this bylaw, omits important information. Calgary’s anti-chicken bylaw is currently being reviewed, and may even be overturned in a human rights appeal. Continuing to oppose citizens open to backyard chicken coops, leaves the city liable to face legal challenges, while dropping the bylaw does not endanger the public, and expands
citizens options to locally raised food, and/or animal companionship.

Please refer to the following newspaper articles from Winnipeg:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/suburban-henhouses-may-prove-hard-to-block-80494782.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/cooping-chickens-in-backyards-91683349.html

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a25

It’s not enough that Regina have a thriving Farmers Market with local and/or organic food in some seasons; citizens have a human right to raise chickens on their property. There are bylaws already in place if those animals are mistreated or disruptive to neighbours. Chickens work in New York, why not the city of Agribition?!

Also of interest is this photo from the University of Regina archives.

Chickens wandering loose in the city? Imagine that? And the world didn’t fall apart because of it. You
know we also have many other birds wandering loose, including ducks, geese, and pigeons, and people
somehow survive or even enjoy them being around.

Sincerely,
[Saskboy]

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3 Responses to Chicken Council

  1. Pingback: Don’t Be Scared, Speak Up* « Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff – Site News

  2. If you think two chickens is a mass of them, then you’ve not been to Wascana Park to see people feeding the geese and ducks I guess. Or if you had, you ran clutching your nose in terror, because there are more than two birds there.

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