Chickens on hearing agenda
By Lethbridge Herald on November 24, 2023.
Editor:
Today urban backyard hens are legal in over a dozen cities and towns in Alberta. I did some simple research by calling and looking up the administration of a handful of these cities – Edmonton, Calgary, Airdrie, Red Deer and Grand Prairie with one simple question; “How many complaints have you received regarding backyard hens since they were made legal?”
The answers I got were consistent, in each city ‘none’ or ‘very few’ complaints were received. In fact all of these jurisdictions were looking at increasing or streamlining their regulations by either eliminating existing licensing caps or increasing the number of allowable chickens from four to six.
None of these places had any of the problems normally ascribed to chickens – those being noise, smell and an increase in predators.
There are many benefits to having backyard chickens such as fresh eggs, compost, grasshopper management, stress relief and more.
One question remains: why do we sit here at “the heart of Canada’s premier food corridor” yet we do not have a bylaw in which residents could keep chickens?
I will present this case at a public hearing to city council on Tuesday at the next council meeting. Hope to see you there.
Gilles Leclair
Lethbridge
10-9
buh GAWK! bock bock bock!