Why? To Get To Your Backyard

Coming home to roost From Tuesday's Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009 03:36AM EDT

The urban-chicken lobby is pecking up strength on the back of a few bad chicken yokes and a string of testimonials from presentable, middle-class sustainability advocates who prefer to remain anonymous, not because they are chicken, but for fear of the consequences of running afoul of the law. (You're meant to laugh now.)

Advocates have been popping up in interviews, in one case cleverly concealed from a television camera by an egg in a cup, agitating for repeal of urban-chicken bans and displaying tidy stealth coops in their well tended back yards as if it were immutable proof that chickens and large cities in the developed world are perfectly compatible. But not all those who will be turning backyards into barnyards will have large, well groomed properties, nor will they all be as responsible as the advocates or even be doing it for such virtuous reasons as the desirability of locally produced food.

In jurisdictions where urban chickens are permitted, there is an increase in complaints about smells and flies, though advocates provide assurances that these can be addressed by properly cleaning chicken coops and properly composting manure. There are also concerns over an increase in disease, notably avian flu, although we are again assured that, if coops are properly built and maintained to make sure chickens are protected from fecal matter dropped by birds flying overhead, disease need not be a problem. There are similar concerns over an increase in urban wildlife that feed on chickens or their eggs, including, but not limited to raccoons, skunks and rats, but here too a properly built and maintained coop can protect against an explosion of nuisance wildlife.

All of this comes down to the responsibility of the individual, and we all know how studiously and uniformly existing city bylaws, such as those for dogs and weeds, are adhered to. Suffice it to say that the urban-chicken movement has the potential to - dare we say it? - ruffle a few feathers.