Thanks to childhood neighbor Tami for bringing this to my attention. The Boston Globe reports on a number of Bostonians setting up illegal chickens in their urban yards, and advocates for them! See the March4, 2012 Op Ed: Don’t ask, don’t tell
Urban Chickens Advocates of Nashville (UCAN) was featured in a City Paper story about the ongoing chicken saga in Nashville. My favorite quote is from Metro Councilman Jim Gotto, who called UCAN’s goal “lofty and noble,” while adding, “the unintended consequences could be disastrous.” What, exactly, could be disastrous about passing legislation that tightly regulates the number of hens a property owner could have? Seriously?
If someone does break the law and crams 50 roosters on a 1/8 acre plot, it won’t be because of any proposed legislation. The pro-chicken bill, which suffered a defeat in 2009, restricted the number of hens to 6, with a minimum area and distance from neighbor’s houses.
There are many comments on the story, mostly written by morons. One of the few informed comments comes from Nash615 who points out:
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Whenever an opponent to a bill says “well, we don’t have the resources to enforce this” they are also pointing out that we currently don’t have the resources to enforce the current legal state of affairs.
“We don’t want to enforce a more clear law on chickens so don’t vote for it.” is not an argument. By that logic they can’t enforce the current muddy law which says maybe you can and maybe you can’t have chickens.
This is an argument-sounding statement, but it’s not an argument. In fact it’s basically saying nothing other than “we can’t enforce the laws we have on the books, so why bother changing them?”
Which is just another way of saying “the laws on the books are basically meaningless.”
I recommend that if you want to have chickens you go ahead and get chickens. Either laws forbidding them won’t be enforced (probably), or the “argument” against clarifying the rules is worthless, in which case you can now push to legalize your reasonable desire to keep chickens in the USD.
As a friend recently said on this topic, “civil disobedience is greatly underrated.”
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I could not have expressed this better, kudos Nash615, whoever you are.
These days I am especially happy to have my own group of healthy hens. Their lives are much different, much healthier and happier, than their sisters in factory farms. Still, it’s not a bad idea to be on alert to avoid a bout of Salmonella and it’s suite of symptoms: fever, bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
First step. Check your eggs to make sure you don’t have a bad batch. Read this page on the FDA site to learn how to identify the source of your eggs! If you’re not sure, toss them. Visit your local farmers market and buy happy eggs instead.
Ongoing Salmonella avoidance is not rocket science. Keep your eggs refrigerated. Don’t eat broken eggs, especially if they are covered in chicken poop. And cook them well – no raw egg a-la-Rocky. Here are some good resources for additional reading.