I went to a recent community meeting regarding the proposed new animal control bylaw for the city of Hamilton. Back in the 90’s the government of Ontario at the time, mandated that many smaller municipalities be amalgamated into larger ones. Hamilton absorbed several small towns around it.
Each of these jurisdictions had different bylaws. Hamilton is looking to overhaul the bylaws regarding animal control into one comprehensive bill. For the people who enforce the bylaws, all the different ones make for a very confusing state of affairs. People on one side of a street can have two dogs, but someone on the other side of the street can have three dogs. Someone at one end of town can possess a python, someone a 15 minute drive away can’t. One person can have so many cats, someone else can only have so many.
So the city has been soliciting input from citizens, letting them know what they propose, and asking for feedback, suggestions, objections, etc.
Myself and several friends went to have our say about urban chickens. With an ever increasing awareness about the prospect of peak oil, and a growing interest in eating food that is raised closer to home, I think allowing people to keep a few chickens is a good thing.
There was a funny commercial recently for new instant coffee from Starbucks where they made mention of how there is always someone at town hall meetings who talks too loud. Sure enough, there was one at this one. A boor with a hair up his ass about cats in his backyard, and they shouldn’t be allowed outside, and cull feral cats, and if anybody’s cat is in my yard I should be allowed to charge the owner with trespassing, and they’re not a native species, and they should have licenses just like dogs and blah blah blah, who kept trying to dominate the conversation and interrupting people as they spoke. Brian McHattie, our very excellent ward councillor, very diplomatically told him to shut up, and several in the audience who weren’t quite so tactful in telling him to shut up.
A lot of the meeting dealt with cats actually. Partly due to duders and his agenda, but there was also a veterinarian who brought up a lot of good points regarding cats. The insistence on numbers rather than being a reponsible owner. She said she had clients who have nine cats, they’re all spayed and/or neutered, they’re all vaccinated, they’re all indoor cats, microchipped, their houses don’t stink. Then there are people who have one cat, don’t get it fixed, don’t get it vaccinated, let it roam around outside, no identification, it gives birth to litters of feral cats. Who is the more responsible cat owner?
Much mention was made of how Calgary handles the issue, and I guess they are pretty much held up as the role model for the rest of North America to follow. Very progressive approach. They make it very simple and cheap to obey their very common sense rules and regs, and very expensive to ignore them.
There were some pet store owners who were concerned about how the bill would affect them, vis a vis exotic pets.
There were a few of us who brought up the issue of backyard chickens. There was someone there from the health dept. who raised some issues that I thought were frankly a bit silly. Noise. Really? We have how many tens, hundreds of thousands of motor vehicles in this city, and we’re going to raise the issue of the noise that some chickens can make? Health issues. Again with cars, how many people are directly injured or killed by them in Hamilton each year? Tens, hundreds? How many people are indirectly injured or killed by them through pollution? Hundreds, thousands? He raised the specter of bird flu. He mentioned an outbreak in Jakarta. I’ve been to Jakarta. I’ve seen slums in Jakarta. Outbreaks there have more to do with improper sanitation, lack of hygiene, over crowding, people living in a tiny shack with their whole family and cheek by jowl with their livestock. Again it struck me as a bit of a red herring. Outbreaks of diseases among chickens here on farms have more to do with tens of thousands of birds crammed into a barn living in their own filth than anything else. There are ways to control any diseases that chickens might get by, once again, being a responsible owner. It’s kind of simple. Take it to the vet, give it the shots it needs, keep the cages clean, get a licence for it, be above board about it, etc. If people can own vicious breeds of dogs, it seems weird to forbid poultry.
There was a woman there from the Hamilton Community Food Security Stakeholder Advisory Committee (which is a sub-committee of city hall). Seemed pretty on the ball and we exchanged contact info and she has sent us a bunch of information. How other cities deal with the subject of urban chickens, etc.
I figure if enough people express an interest, and can articulate their reasoning in a sound manner, and are willing to obey any rules about it, hopefully it will be allowed. It may not pass right away, but amendments are made to bylaws all the time. There are about five hundred amendments to the traffic bylaws every year. We’ll see.
Each of these jurisdictions had different bylaws. Hamilton is looking to overhaul the bylaws regarding animal control into one comprehensive bill. For the people who enforce the bylaws, all the different ones make for a very confusing state of affairs. People on one side of a street can have two dogs, but someone on the other side of the street can have three dogs. Someone at one end of town can possess a python, someone a 15 minute drive away can’t. One person can have so many cats, someone else can only have so many.
So the city has been soliciting input from citizens, letting them know what they propose, and asking for feedback, suggestions, objections, etc.
Myself and several friends went to have our say about urban chickens. With an ever increasing awareness about the prospect of peak oil, and a growing interest in eating food that is raised closer to home, I think allowing people to keep a few chickens is a good thing.
There was a funny commercial recently for new instant coffee from Starbucks where they made mention of how there is always someone at town hall meetings who talks too loud. Sure enough, there was one at this one. A boor with a hair up his ass about cats in his backyard, and they shouldn’t be allowed outside, and cull feral cats, and if anybody’s cat is in my yard I should be allowed to charge the owner with trespassing, and they’re not a native species, and they should have licenses just like dogs and blah blah blah, who kept trying to dominate the conversation and interrupting people as they spoke. Brian McHattie, our very excellent ward councillor, very diplomatically told him to shut up, and several in the audience who weren’t quite so tactful in telling him to shut up.
A lot of the meeting dealt with cats actually. Partly due to duders and his agenda, but there was also a veterinarian who brought up a lot of good points regarding cats. The insistence on numbers rather than being a reponsible owner. She said she had clients who have nine cats, they’re all spayed and/or neutered, they’re all vaccinated, they’re all indoor cats, microchipped, their houses don’t stink. Then there are people who have one cat, don’t get it fixed, don’t get it vaccinated, let it roam around outside, no identification, it gives birth to litters of feral cats. Who is the more responsible cat owner?
Much mention was made of how Calgary handles the issue, and I guess they are pretty much held up as the role model for the rest of North America to follow. Very progressive approach. They make it very simple and cheap to obey their very common sense rules and regs, and very expensive to ignore them.
There were some pet store owners who were concerned about how the bill would affect them, vis a vis exotic pets.
There were a few of us who brought up the issue of backyard chickens. There was someone there from the health dept. who raised some issues that I thought were frankly a bit silly. Noise. Really? We have how many tens, hundreds of thousands of motor vehicles in this city, and we’re going to raise the issue of the noise that some chickens can make? Health issues. Again with cars, how many people are directly injured or killed by them in Hamilton each year? Tens, hundreds? How many people are indirectly injured or killed by them through pollution? Hundreds, thousands? He raised the specter of bird flu. He mentioned an outbreak in Jakarta. I’ve been to Jakarta. I’ve seen slums in Jakarta. Outbreaks there have more to do with improper sanitation, lack of hygiene, over crowding, people living in a tiny shack with their whole family and cheek by jowl with their livestock. Again it struck me as a bit of a red herring. Outbreaks of diseases among chickens here on farms have more to do with tens of thousands of birds crammed into a barn living in their own filth than anything else. There are ways to control any diseases that chickens might get by, once again, being a responsible owner. It’s kind of simple. Take it to the vet, give it the shots it needs, keep the cages clean, get a licence for it, be above board about it, etc. If people can own vicious breeds of dogs, it seems weird to forbid poultry.
There was a woman there from the Hamilton Community Food Security Stakeholder Advisory Committee (which is a sub-committee of city hall). Seemed pretty on the ball and we exchanged contact info and she has sent us a bunch of information. How other cities deal with the subject of urban chickens, etc.
I figure if enough people express an interest, and can articulate their reasoning in a sound manner, and are willing to obey any rules about it, hopefully it will be allowed. It may not pass right away, but amendments are made to bylaws all the time. There are about five hundred amendments to the traffic bylaws every year. We’ll see.
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