Residents Squawk Over Chicken Law Change
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Chicken owners have been pecking at the board, the health inspector and the mayor's office with a plethora of calls over the past couple weeks over worries their fowl were about to be plucked.
Not so, say health officials, they're just updating 40-year-old language regarding henneries to comply with state laws.
"The state says that if you have a chicken, I am supposed to inspect it, make sure it has a coop, make sure it's not running loose, make sure you're taking care of it," said Health Inspector Manuel Serrano. "We've been talking about doing this since last October, last September."
Serrano said the current language allows for residents to keep less than 10 chickens without permitting; anything more than that has to be permitted and comply with zoning codes and a minimum two acres. The new language would require all owners to apply for permits for any chickens; the zoning ordinances would still be enforced. Permitting fees would help cover the cost of inspections, he said.
City residents Laurie and Keith Simon, who have a permitted hennery, and Charles "Chuck" Felix, president of the Massachusetts Agricultural Fairs Association, attended the meeting after receiving numerous contacts from frightened chicken owners. Laurie Simon said calls to City Hall hadn't elicited any meaningful information, prompting her to request time on the board's agenda.
"We heard complaints starting last fall, well before this current administration, about people owning chickens," Simon told the board, along with rumors that the city would ban either all of them or just the nonpermitted ones. She also brought a letter of support from Dr. Michelle Gorbutt of Greylock Animal Hospital that basically said well-kept coops were not a health issue and that a chicken census would be beneficial for the city.
Serrano said the rumors weren't true.
Backyard chickens took off a few years ago, part of a global movement toward locally and humanely grown food. A number of Web sites offer information on raising chickens and Martha Stewart has even joined the flock with a recent episode on the rewards of chicken raising on her eponymous home living show.
However, the health officials said the public health, particularly in regard to avian disease, had to be kept in mind.
"The avian virus is also a concern," said Chairman David Polumbo. "Having a chicken census, so to speak, would help alleviate that. They are a vector for spread so we have to be careful."
Once the language is ironed out with city counsel, a public hearing will be held and the rule passed by the attorney general's office for approval.
The Simons and Felix, who doesn't have chickens, were satisfied with the response but skeptical the regulation would be taking its current shape without the poultrymen raising a ruckus.
