By Ed Bruske
Contributing Editor
Washington Post garden columnist Adrian Higgins today lends his voice to the growing movement behind backyard chickens in the nation’s capitol with a front-page spread in the paper’s Home section.
Higgins recounts the story of Caryn Ernst and how D.C. police and animal control agents swooped down on her family’s Capitol Hill home in June when they discovered that Ernst and her daughters were raising some chickens in their back yard as part of an elementary school science project. After the chickens were taken away, Ernst started digging into D.C. law and discovered that it is nearly impossible to raise backyard chickens in the District of Columbia. Animal control regulations require that chickens be kept at least 50 feet from the nearest residence.
Ernst took her concerns to local Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who, with Ernst’s assistance, drafted a new law that would ease restrictions on keeping chickens. That bill is now in the hands of Councilmember David Catania (RI-At Large), pending a hearing before the Council’s Committee on Health, which Catania chairs.
In the meantime, Ernst and fellow chicken enthusiast Amanda Cundiff have started a petition drive in support of backyard chickens at the DC Food for All blog, a collaborative effort of local food access advocates. Ernst and Cundiff have presented Catania with 130 signatures of D.C. resients in favor of a new chicken law.
In the latest development, Catania’s staff has suggested that the issue could be resolved by Animal Control officials, without the need for a new law. Ernst and Cundiff say they now plan to present their petition to Animal Control.
The bill written by Tommy Wells would permit keeping hens for laying eggs, not meat, and it would prohibit roosters, which make too much noise. Still. Wells’ bill would be far more restrictive than chicken legislation in other jurisdictions–including city’s such as New York–because it would require that anyone wishing to keep hens obtain written permission from 80 percent of neighbors living within 100 feet.
Backyard chickens have been embraced by a surging local food movement as a boon to those who want to eat more healthfully, more sustainably and more cheaply. If that applies to you, by all means sign the petition.
And don’t miss edible gardening columnist Barbara Damrosch’s sidebar on the benefits of raising chickens at home–even in the city.
Have you signed our petition yet? Add your voice: “Let us have hens!”
Many North American urban hen groups are bogged down by the bureaucraZy. To catapult to the core of this issue, consider this article from the Winnipeg Free Press which provides an example of the Universal Human Right to Food option.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/suburban-henhouses-may-prove-hard-to-block-80494782.html
“…when up against a “right to grow food” challenge, it is doubtful jurisdictions would be able to defend their bylaws…”
Ergo, there shouldn’t be a community in North America, or anyplace on the Planet for that matter, that outlaws growing/raising your own food. If there is, I’m sure many on this list would like to hear about it.
CLUCK: Calgary Liberated Urban Chicken Club goes to court on 01April10 to present a Right to Food challenge against the present bylaw.