Chickens may be allowed to come home to roost
He visited an empty henhouse in the backyard of a home in his Common Council district Wednesday. He talked at length with a Rhode Island Street woman who is on a mission to change a city law that bans urban chicken farming.
By the time Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera returned to his City Hall office, he was determined to take the lead in drafting legislation that would — with some stringent guidelines — allow city residents to raise hens.
If that happens, Monique Watts’ chickens can return from exile.
Watts moved the hens this week to a secret location after an animal-control officer said their occupancy on the West Side violates a city law passed in 2004.
Rivera already has been talking with Council peers and is hosting a Friday strategy session with an eye toward changing the law.
Rivera said the issue is far broader than resolving Watts’ dilemma. “You’re starting to see more urban farms across the country,” he said, adding that raising hens is a popular component of this movement.
Amending Buffalo’s code to let people keep chickens on their properties would likely come with numerous strings attached. City officials have been reviewing laws in other cities, and Rivera said a local ordinance might include:
• A ban on roosters, based on the assumption that most neighbors have alarm clocks.
• A stipulation that chickens have a certain amount of space to run.
• Restrictions on how close a chicken coop can be placed to homes or businesses.
Watts said she wholeheartedly agrees that any revised law must include some provisions that would guard against neighborhood nuisances and ensure the safety of the birds. “We would want an ordinance that covers all the bases,” she said.
Watts and Rivera are hoping that city attorneys participate in Friday’s meeting.
Corporation Counsel Alisa A. Lukasiewicz already has done extensive research on urban chicken farming. While acknowledging that the practice is growing nationally, the attorney said that raising poultry within city limits raises numerous concerns. In addition to worries about noise and smells, Lukasiewicz said, some critics also have raised health issues.
“Although advocates of urban chicken farming claim that farming poultry on a small scale presents less risk of disease than large-scale production, some still worry that backyard chickens might carry and transit the avian flu,” Lukasiewicz wrote in a March 24 memo to an Oregon woman who had inquired about the issue.
Watts said her research has not found any such risks.
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