Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "cluck"

City chicken ordinance passed by City Council

2011-08-31T07:23:36Z

The City Council passed the backyard hen-keeping ordinance after nearly two years of discussion in an 8-0 vote Tuesday night.

The ordinance, set to take effect November 1, will allow people within city limits to keep up to three hens in their backyard as long as the enclosure is 20 feet away from the nearest neighboring residence, and a license fee of $10 per household and permit fee of $15 per chicken is paid annually.

To read the ordinance, click here.

After 18 members of the community spoke in support of the council adopting the ordinance, and two in opposition, all members of the council voted in favor of adopting the ordinance except one, councilman Darrell Fong, who was not present at the meeting due to a family vacation.

Councilwomen Angelique Ashby, Sandy Sheedy and Bonnie Pannell said that they still have concerns about passing the ordinance, but that they will pass it, holding their caution, and check back in six months.

“I am willing to give it a chance; I’m willing to make sure that we have a report back so that we know it’s working or that it isn’t working, and we can make a final decision at that time,” Sheedy said.

Ashby said her concern was around the question of enforcement, which Reina Schwartz, director for the Department of Animal Care Services, said will be based on complaints by neighbors.

“We either need to do some education, or we need to make sure that the ordinance can be enforced, because we have a quality-of-life issue here on both sides. I want to give people that opportunity,” Ashby said, “but I don’t want that decision to have a negative impact on the quality of life for people who don’t want to have chickens in their backyard.”

Kenneth Caldwell, a resident of Land Park, was one of the few who spoke up in opposition to the ordinance, stating findings from research he conducted on the possible problems that could come from raising chickens in the city. One reason he gave was that chickens could be carriers for a number of diseases, including Avian Influenza and Coccidia.

“Coccidia is a parasite that chickens can contract and can be tracked through their feces,” he said, “The ordinance only indicates that it has to be contained where it can’t smell, and gotten rid of in some appropriate manner,” which he said will end up in our garbage cans, our streets, and then our water.”

Charles Luce, a chemist with a background in antibiotic research who has spoken up in the past in opposition to the ordinance, said, “Hong Kong has a ban- the reason is that they are afraid for the disease to be mutated and translated easily.” If it is, he added, it would be the worst epidemic ever.

“(This disease) has been circulating in Asia since 2003,” said Dr. Glenna Trochet, the county’s Public Health Officer. “It is very deadly, but the likelihood that chickens who are covered is low, and they would need to be exposed to the feces of wild birds.”

Experts she has consulted with multiple times on the topic also added that if the virus were to become transmissible between human beings, it would be brought to the United States by the people.

Many who spoke were for the passing of the ordinance, and multiple representatives of CLUCK (Campaign for the Legalization of Chicken Keeping) spoke at the meeting on the environmental benefits of raising chickens, as well as the sustainability practices it promotes through the education behind where one’s food comes from.

“Yolks from fresh eggs are more nutritious and less expensive in these difficult economic times,” said Joe Calavita, a member of CLUCK. “Chickens can live on one bag of feed and landowners have gardens- you can use that for organic manure. Chickens also eat bugs which eliminates the need for pesticides.”

Councilman Steve Cohn, who has been working with advocacy groups like CLUCK for the last two years, commended everyone who spoke on either side of the issue, and thanked the supporters of the ordinance for their patience.

“I’m glad that we’re finally here,” he said, commenting on the long haul everyone on the council went through to get the ordinance passed, “it’s certainly consistent with the city’s sustainability plan.”

City staff hatching chicken ordinance

2011-02-16T01:32:12Z

City staff will draft an ordinance that, if passed, will allow up to three egg-laying hens to be kept in backyards within city limits.

The Law and Legislation committee of the City Council gave the nod to city staff to draft the ordinance in a unanimous decision Tuesday.

City Councilman Steve Cohn, who walked out of a previous meeting to prevent the issue being shot down in a 3-1 vote, called Tuesday’s decision a victory, and said the ordinance should come to the full council for a vote within one or two months, where he expects it will pass.

“I was very pleased,” said Cohn, who has been advocating for allowing hens in city backyards for more than a year. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem at the full council, frankly.”

According to guidelines in the staff report, the ordinance will allow three hens per backyard, provided they are 30 feet from a neighboring residence. It will also ban roosters, which are largely responsible for noise complaints, and it will ban slaughtering.

I thought it was very positive,” said Joe Calavita, a member of the Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Farming (CLUCK). “This is the first time we’ve been able to move forward, and a unanimous decision is wonderful.”

He said the ordinance isn’t perfect, since he would like to see the allowance of more than three hens, and he sees a problem with the 30-foot requirement, but he said he hopes those details can be changed.

“My backyard is only 40 feet across,” he said, “so that part of it is a concern.”

The lone opponent of the ordinance’s drafting during the public comment session Tuesday – in which nine spoke in favor – was Charles Luce, a chemist who said he is concerned that allowing chickens in backyards will increase the risk of the H5N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as Avian Flu.

“There’s a chance that people will die because of it,” he said after the meeting. “I think it’s a big mistake. Children have a 100 percent mortality rate for contracting H5N1.”

Dr. Glennah Trochet, public health official for Sacramento County, said Avian Flu has not been present in the western hemisphere, and she said experts she has consulted with in the California Department of Health and at University of California, Davis, told her the risk is minimal, and the disease cannot be passed from person to person.

“The health risks are largely to (chicken) owners,” she said, adding that risks involved include salmonella.

Those risks, however, can be eliminated through providing information and education on proper ways to raise chickens and hand-washing techniques, she said.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, who was prepared to vote against the ordinance last November, said her concerns were that it not bring more costs to the city’s budget.

“We don’t need more deficits on the books,” she said.

Costs incurred by the city would be for enforcement, which would be overseen by animal control.

Animal Care Services Manager Penny Cistaro said the department already deals with complaints about illegal chickens, which cost about $30,000 per year. Responses to complaints would be handled within the department’s existing budget, she said.

Licensing fees would be part of the new ordinance, and they would amount to $15 per chicken, an amount that is equal to licensing of dogs.

If passed, the ordinance will come under City Council review six months and one year after it is enacted.

Sacramento Press Editorial Intern Michaela Stewart contributed to this report.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilman walks out of chicken discussion

2010-11-17T02:14:52Z

The fate of chicken keeping in Sacramento is still undecided after Tuesday’s Law and Legislation Committee meeting when Councilman Steve Cohn walked out and prevented Sandy Sheedy and Lauren Hammond from voting down the ordinance advocated by CLUCK (Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping).

Cohn was the only supportive voice on the committee. “What I’d like to do,” he said, “is allow more work to be done and have an actual ordinance be drafted.”

Hammond said, “I have never been enthusiastic about the idea.”

Cohn replied, “If you wanna kill it, kill it, but I’ll bring it back when you’re gone.”

This was a disappointing finale for CLUCK as supporters were left puzzled by Cohn’s abrupt departure and left wondering if their efforts had been wasted.

Members of CLUCK discussed principles they’d written for proper chicken keeping, which address health concerns, zoning plans, enforcement costs and license fees.

Reina Schwartz, director of the Sacramento's Department of General Services, said the cost of enforcement for proper chicken keeping would be about $30,000 annually.

“There is no evidence of how this will change if chicken keeping was made legal,” Schwartz said. “It will shift the nature of complaints, but not the volume.”

Sheedy, however, said she couldn’t understand how allowing chicken keeping wouldn’t make a difference in complaints if keeping were to be legalized and the backyard chicken population in Sacramento increased.

“We don’t have the staff to support this,” Sheedy said. “Our animal control staff is pushed to its limit already.”

Some residents agree.

“My neighbors have illegal chickens, and it’s a big problem,” said Todd Harlan. “When the wind blows, you smell them. When they fly up on the fence, the dogs get them.”

Those opposed to chicken keeping in Sacramento were concerned about avian flu, which Placerville veterinarian Jeanie Smith claimed was unwarranted.

“There are more deaths by traffic accidents in Sacramento annually than by avian flu worldwide,” she said. “There have been six historical outbreaks, and none in the western hemisphere.”

Community supporters encouraged the council to consider the educational benefits of teaching children how to raise animals for food. Some claimed chicken keeping would create an economic boost. Supporters said the same city ordinances used for cats and dogs could be applied to chickens.

“Sacramento is behind the times,” State Director of Pesticide Watch Paul Towers said, “and we urge Sacramento to see the value of backyard chickens.”

“Eight of the 10 Forbes ‘Most Livable Cities’ allow chicken keeping,” CLUCK supporter Joseph Calavita said. “All different kinds of communities already allow it.”

With no progress made by this meeting, members of CLUCK will have to wait until January to bring the ordinance back before the new council.

“It seems that enforcement is their biggest concern,” CLUCK member Susan Ballew said after the meeting was adjourned. “There just aren’t enough city resources.”

CLUCK presses for changes

2009-08-07T05:36:59Z

Sacramento gardening activists want to take urban agriculture to the next level and legalize raising chickens in your back yard.

"It's really been a hot topic lately," said Jaclyn Hopkins, volunteer coordinator for Environmental and Agricultural Taskforce Sacramento. "A lot of cities are changing their regulations to allow chicken-keeping, and Sacramento's on it's way."

EAT Sacramento and its partner group Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping (CLUCK) were founded this year to advocate for more sustainable and organic gardening in the city. To promote the cause of backyard chicken coops, CLUCK will be hosting screenings of the indie documentary Mad City Chickens at the Guild Theatre Friday at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., and again at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $5 and available at the door.

Mad City Chickens is equal parts entertainment and educational outreach. The film is an intelligent, sometimes-comic look at the relationships between city-dwelling humans and the chickens they raise, following the intersecting stories of various families, professionals and birds. The plot centers around the grassroots movement to legalize chicken-keeping in Madison City, Wisconsin, which successfully changed its city code in 2004. The film's two directors, Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai, are on tour with the film and will host discussions after both screenings on Friday. They will have moved on to San Francisco by Sunday.

This screening is part of a concerted effort to change Sacramento law on behalf of the birds.

Under current city law, clucking, flightless egg-layers cannot be kept as pets due to an ordinance that bans the non-agricultural raising of any livestock. City laws for the city were changed to prohibit chickens in 1989. The same language that bans chickens also bans most other barnyard animals: horses, mules, sheep, goats, etc.

"It was part of a sweeping ban to make Sac look like a modern city," CLUCK coordinator Abbie Crouch said. "But nowadays, people want to get back in touch with their roots."

After researching the ban for months, EAT Sacramento is still unsure why city government chose to outlaw chickens specifically. Perhaps it was, as Crouch said, to solidify Sacramento's development from a 'cow town' to a metropolitan urban center. Alternatively, it could also have been intended to deal with occasional complaints about noise, odor or chicken mistreatment.

Whatever the case, the ban hasn't stuck. Rogue Sacramento chicken-keepers still hatch, feed, house and learn to love their feathered friends in spite of the law.

"There's a surprisingly large chicken underground, "Crouch said. "A lot of people don't mind breaking the law." CLUCK estimates there are hundreds of backyard chickens in the city.

It's legal to raise chickens most anywhere else in California. San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose have all okayed backyard cooping, as have our neighbors in Roseville, Oakland and (of course) Davis.

Sacramento County code allows anyone to raise chickens as long as they have a yard larger than 10,000 square feet, which closes off most city residents but allows folks in Fair Oaks to raise chickens with much gusto.

Regulations usually place a cap on maximum number of chickens (about four to six per family) and add that chickens must be kept at least 20, 25, or 40 feet from neighboring structures. Los Angeles has no limits on how many hens one family can raise. Hens are tranquil, quiet and well-mannered, but their boyfriends can present a problem. Roosters are almost never legal, as they tend to pick fights and crow at godawful times of the day, and even after all that they don't contribute anything toward egg-laying. Slaughtering chickens is also illegal almost everywhere, as some serious health concerns start to enter the picture.

If chickens could talk, they'd be vocal supporters of backyard raising. Animal rights activists brought new attention to the relative brutality of factory farm conditions with the passage of Proposition 2 in the 2008 general election. Prop. 2 will require significant improvements in animal treatment for California meat and poultry industries in 2015. Those improvements reveal how constrictive factory cages are; Prop 2's requirements were simply for animals to have enough space to stand up and turn around.

Comparatively, backyard chickens have massive coops and a great deal more TLC. "Backyard chickens tend to live pretty sweet lives," Hopkins said.

It doesn't take much to really spoil a chicken. A little space to scratch around, a comfy enclosure for laying, feed to peck at, and as a treat, some grass to gobble from time to time. These are simple pleasures that anyone with a backyard can provide.

"Everybody could raise a chicken or two," Crouch said "They're easier to take care of than more conventional pets like dogs."

Raising chickens can enhance life for you and your chicken, according to new scientific studies. Chickens get an easy, comfortable living and you get fresh eggs that knock out the supermarket in terms of quality. Two recent Penn State studies have shown that free-range hens produce healthier eggs, richer in nutrients and Omega-3 fats, and studies of a less-academic nature have confirmed that free-range eggs taste terrific.

Crouch said that chickens can make great pets, too. "Not only do you get delicious food, you get some evening entertainment."

Even though they may have brains more like dinosaurs than like cats or dogs or hamsters, chickens can be a kind of companion animal. Chickens can hop on your lap and get friendly, and they generally like being petted. "And it sounds silly, but you can have a beer on the porch and watch your chickens be cute and do stupid stuff in your back yard," Crouch said.

Legalizing and regulating chicken culture in Sacramento would have benefits across the board, CLUCK members surmise. Documenting the number of chickens in the city is one perk, and increased attention could also allow for better disease control or donation of deceased chickens to local colleges.

"When we talk to city council, we usually keep things loose to allow for the development of regulations," said Hopkins. At present, CLUCK is looking at a six chicken maximum and a mandatory distance between coop and home.

The eggs of reform are incubating, according to EAT and CLUCK representatives.

"It's now just a matter of when," Hopkins said.

For information on CLUCK and EAT Sacramento

•Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping, a subsidiary campaign of EAT Sacramento
info@EATsacramento.org or 916-551-1883

•Mad City Chickens on Friday, 7:00 and 9:30 and Sunday at 7:00
Guild Theatre
Post screening discussion with independent filmmakers Tashai Lovington & Robert Lughai, of Tarazod Films