Brian Meyer, Buffalo News, June 18, 2009
Raising chickens might soon be legal in Buffalo, with advocates insisting that strict rules would prevent odors, rat problems and other nuisances.
People would have to pay a onetime $25 fee for a license, with the money offsetting the costs of a mandatory inspection of coops, under the legislation sponsored by Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera.
No roosters would be permitted, and no more than five hens would be allowed per dwelling. The fowl could only be kept in rear yards, and coops could be no larger than 32 square feet.
In addition, the coops would have to be at least 20 feet away from any window or door of any property and a minimum of five feet from all side lot lines. Chickens would have to be kept inside the coop within a fenced yard.
“People won’t have to worry about walking into someone’s yard and having chickens running all over the place,” Rivera said.
{snip}
The issue surfaced after a West Side woman was forced to move her hens to a site outside Buffalo after learning that city laws do not permit people to raise chickens. Monique Watts launched a campaign to change the law, noting that urban chicken farming is a growing trend nationally.
Watts believes the bill is a good first step, even though some of the conditions are “very restrictive.” For example, Watts said some people with small rear yards would be unable to comply with rules that require coops to be certain distances from dwellings and property lines.
{snip}
Watts also questioned another rule that would bar people from selling eggs that are laid by backyard chickens.
{snip}
Rivera hopes the new regulations will be approved by the end of July. Recognizing that some residents and lawmakers are worried that allowing chicken coops in yards could cause neighborhood tensions, Rivera highlighted nearly two dozen restrictions.
{snip}
Other rules would require rat-proof chicken feed containers and would bar people from slaughtering chickens outside.
Before a license is issued, property owners who live within 50 feet of the applicant would be notified and given an opportunity to comment.
If chicken coop owners don’t comply with the rules after obtaining licenses, Rivera said, there will be an easy remedy.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on June 19, 2009)
Comments
Rivera . There’s a reason the west side of Buffalo is referred to as the ‘hispanic’ west side.
People have no cultural memory. People fail to remember why these regulations were originally enacted.
I don’t care what restrictions they impose, this will get out of hand and neighbors are going to complain. It’s unlikely Mr. Rivera is going to have to live next to a chicken coop but he doesn’t have a problem forcing this problem on others who will have no power to fight back.
And remember a few years back the hysteria over the avian flu?
In time, the chicken coops will become covers for cock fighting.
If anyone wants to own chickens, there is plenty of rural space to do so. There’s no reason to bring such a problem to urban neighborhoods.
More foolishness.
I take it this is the “enrichment” the multi-cult crowd keeps telling us about? We should force them to live next door to the “enrichment” indefinitely and see HOW they feel about it!
Next up goat sacrifices in the town square.
Welcome to the third world.
This might be a result of certain new arrivals, but the left wing is also big into things like free range chickens that can run around in a back yard. So this might be a matter of the left wing as it is immigration.
@Question Diversity
Some of us Christians are into free-range and natural stuff too. BTW, did you mean “left wing” as a pun? :)
As long as it isn’t hurting anyone or causing problems, I personally don’t care if someone has a chicken coop.
My local paper talked about an interest in raising chickens in the city. Their version has white yuppies raising chickens to provide organic food. Hmm… City people usually have no interest in growing food. If they did, they would not live in the city. Note how the liberal press seems to work together. If we legalize chicken raising the mexicans have their cockfighting in the city. They won’t have to travel so far.
As sbuffalonative notes, the hispanics will ignore the “strict rules” regulating this just as they do our immigration laws.
Years ago I was driving through the Bronx and I saw a Puerto Rican chasing his chickens down the street. They had escaped from his backyard.
yes, welcome to the third world. it seems the obama administration has given up on the america we grew up in, prosperous, with rich and vital urban centers. after all, didn’t i read on this site where they’re planning to bulldoze the ghettoes of large american cities? chicken farms in every backyard is next, with disease soon to follow. this is the future of the USA
Great idea!
Lets start with chicken, then move on to goats, sheep, pigs and cows. If Hispanic can raise chickens, shouldn’t Hindus be allowed to let cows roam free the way they do in Indian cities?
What happens when a Muslim objects to a neighbor raising pigs?
What about the Bird Flue? Wasn’t that a scare just a couple of years ago? Now we are wanting to raise chickens in densely urban areas? Is the U.S. Dept of Agriculture going to do any inspection?
We have Hispanics living 10-15 in 3 bedroom houses with half a dozen or more cars parked in the front yard. Does anyone seriously think that anyone will enforce the 5 chicken limit?
“….bar people from slaughtering chickens outside.” What are they suppose to do slaughter them in the house?
“….onetime $25 fee for a license” A lot of these people don’t have drivers licenses and someone expects them to get a chicken licenses?
“….the coops would have to be at least 20 feet away from any window or door of any property and a minimum of five feet from all side lot lines.” We are talking about an urban environment with small or no back yards.
“….another rule that would bar people from selling eggs that are laid by backyard chickens.” How do you tell if the eggs being sold at the farmers market were laid in country or the city.
“Some city officials were scratching their heads Wednesday as they reviewed the bill. If roosters are banned, then how will hens lay eggs?” So these city officials don’t know the first thing about raising chickens, yet they are going to have to vote on a chicken bill.
“Perhaps some of these restrictions can be eased a bit,” she said.” Could we at least pass the bill before we start to water it down?
Folks, you need to catch up with the times. This is not about race, it’s about failure of the system and economic self sufficiency. Personal income tax filings were down 25% in America. More and more people are growing their own food.
Frozen whole chickens go for $4 at the supermarket, so what sense is it to build an entire coop to raise 5(!) hens at a time (or $20 of chicken)?? What happens during the winter months? The whole idea is asinine.
Chickens do make better pets than goldfish, I admit (if that’s the intent) and arguably as interesting pets as a cat or a dog.
I wonder…Will the birds accompany them on the bus when they travel?
HAPPY BACKYARD FARMING - YES!
Left and right and hippie and non-hippie and Anglo and Hispanic backyard coops are not the issue here.
No roosters = minimal noise and NO cockfighting
I greatly prefer today’s 100% fresh brown organic eggs with beautiful rich golden yolks rather than factory-farmed eggs [and you can check out what PETA and other alleged-extremists have say about the vile horrors of factory-farming of chickens for eggs or meat.]
I might - in passing - add that Muscovy ducks are silent and a joy to rear.
“Just look at who’s sponsoring this legislation: Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera. There’s a reason the west side of Buffalo is referred to as the ‘hispanic’ west side.”
Interesting.
A lot of (Caribbean) Hispanics practice a voo-doo called “Santeria”. Expect to see a lot of dead chickens and chicken blood laying around the West end.
Third world cultures bring their third world cultures into any nation they reside. Face it, America is becoming a third world nation as it was deliberately intended to do. Doesn’t take a genuis to figure out who was behind this destruction of a once great and free society.
“People won’t have to worry about walking into someone’s yard and having chickens running all over the place,” Rivera said.”
And also, as other posters have pointed out, being used for cockfighting.
I am opposed on principle to EVERY attempt to impose Third World values/customs/prejudices/superstitions upon First World nations. This is yet another in an endless parade of demands from immigrants from countries that our countries should let them keep doing whatever they used to do in their backwards countries — thereby dragging US backwards too.
Also, please note that the Hispandering trend that began in the SW has now made it as far North and East as Buffalo, NY.
Anonymous at 11:42 AM
I couldn’t agree more. These people bring with them many of the ideas, habits, and manners that make their native countries Third World in character; the lack of a work ethic, an inclination toward authoritarian and often violent political behavior, and an unfamiliarity and uneasiness with the religious, educational, hygienic, scientific, and moral conventions of our country that most Americans take for granted.
White people don’t want to live with farm animals in suburbia, so white people wrote community guidelines. Now these non-white people from third world countries have invaded the suburbs and brought their feathered and four-footed friends with them. Naturally white people will just have to get used to it whether they like it or not. Diversity is so enriching.
Bill Corr says there is nothing wrong with cockfighting…..I believe most Americans would disagree with that statement. I find it disgusting and abhorrent. A civilized nation and culture would never need this sort of thing to have as “entertainment”.
I wonder…Will the birds accompany them on the bus when they travel?
Anyone besides me ever been on a Cambodian bus? EVERYTHING goes on the bus, chickens, pigs, cows, dogs, ducks AND 70-80 people on a 30 passenger bus…quite the experience in 4th world travel. Face it, NOT ALL countries invading the U.S. are not even up to 3rd world standards yet.
It is instructive and agreeable for families to keep their own chickens and eat fresh eggs from birds fed on good stuff. Children love having their own chickens and watching them thrive and lay eggs.
Sadly, some contributors seem to associate the keeping of chickens, goats, ducks [and so on] with poor, illiterate - and probably unhealthy - Third World people. This is silly, we are all only two or three generations from people who kept their own livestock as a matter of course.
Keeping, killing and eating animals is part of human life. Probably most American kids now have never helped rear chickens or seen a chicken killed. To the urban children of today, chicken is a meat substance which is wrapped in cellophane and bought in a supermarket.
hcl mentions $4 supermarket chickens. You might as well eat dog poop; the taste is NOTHING like as good as the flesh of well-reared chickens fed on good stuff.
Anonymous #18 challenges me on cockfighting; I decline to debate the issue at length except to say that it preserves the old gamecock breed and to add that a number of America’s founding fathers approved of the sport. Anything good enough enough for Washington and Jefferson is just fine by me!
I’d rather live and die as a fighting cock than as a factory-farmed broiler chicken, that’s for sure!
BACK TO THE LAND FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY!
SKIP reminds us of bus & train & boat & truck-bus travel in Cambodia, Laos, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka, rural Thailand, India and Pakistan.
… group sex without the sex … [but WITH the livestock …]
SKIP - that sort of local travel was not really super-comfy at the time but those are all experiences in life one cherishes. [The parental home with armchairs and couches was FAR more comfortable…]
Here the immediate neighbor keeps pigeons and he and his family eat the half-fledged squabs; the gentle noise they make is FAR more agreeable than - say - factory hooters or jackhammers.
Please move next door on the other side with your chickens and ducks.
As the Rev. Jeremiah “Deadmall” Wright would say, “The chickens of ignorance have come home to ROOST!”
My whole thing is property rights. If you own property, you should be able to do what you want so long as you’re not trampling on someone else’s rights.
You want a farm in your back yard? I couldn’t care less. Just make sure the animals don’t wander over to the next-door neighbor’s yard.
Bill Corr seems to have a problem understanding what will result from this since America is now flooded with 3rd world cultures and races. He seems to think that they are the same as we are/were.
This IS about poor, illiterate, and unhealthy 3rd world peoples! If you live in la la land and have never had these people living next to you, I suggest you give it a try sometime and see what they DO and how they THINK!
hcl wrote at 8:13 AM on June 20:
Chickens do make better pets than goldfish, I admit (if that’s the intent) and arguably as interesting pets as a cat or a dog.
> You are so completely mistaken here with your entire notion of what suburban and urban chicken farms is about and actually means. I have always tried to start a garden wherever I have lived. Why, because what you can grow is so much better tasting and so much better for you. Also, it is not difficult to grow vegs, once you know your basics. I have also had chickens from time to time. Now that I live in a suburb on a one-quarter acre lot, having three chickens of so is something my wife and i are considering. Why? It’s for the EGGS silly! Home grown eggs are known to be far more nutritious than store bought, and they do taste better. They can serve as a complete meat replacement, if necessary. Three of four chickens provide a lot of eggs and their are many ways to use eggs including preserving them.
Part of my view of what is happening and will occur more and more and sooner than anything thinks, is that food will continue to become more expensive and our economy, while it might stabalize for a little while will never go back to the “good ol’days” no matter who is in charge. There has been a fundamental change of eras, historically speaking. Being prepared for what is coming requires more knowledge and preparation than storing up guns and knowing how to take care of them. It is also going to come down to who can adapt to a situaiton that is more like say 1866-1875. My wife and I have long been cultivating basic living skills and gardening and small animal husbantry is part of that. It may be in vain, but I think it is a better way to live than the full-on, commercial consumption lifestyle that is so obviously coming to a close.
A large contributor to the home movement in Britain and the U.S. (to a smaller degree) was the Victory Garden. Every front yard possible was used for growing vegetables. I can’t imagine how the Allies would have been able to invade Europe if not for this simple, but vital skill performed by a people united by a very direct threat to their existence.
Whites who want to be prepared for any possible future White nation are going to have to not be too proud to get their hands dirty. Nationalists are making a big mistake if they allow basic living skills to be represented as a repulsive characteristic of their political adversaries. I have long written from time to time on AR posts that White Nationalists will fail if they cannot learn from the past mistakes. That includes learning from any group that has good ideas and practices. Whites once had them when they were more dependent upon their own land. The industrialization of culture took them from it. But rejecting something as vital as home food production because it has been made into a polarizing political symbol is nothing but a fatal - and really ignorant and arrogant mistake.
Sadly, some contributors seem to associate the keeping of chickens, goats, ducks [and so on] with poor, illiterate - and probably unhealthy - Third World people. This is silly, we are all only two or three generations from people who kept their own livestock as a matter of course.
Sorry Bill, but we are also a long ways away from diseases such as unkept/unclean animal husbandry brings and IT WILL COME AGAIN if this is allowed in residential areas. There are diseases showing up here in the U.S. that haven’t been seen in the U.S. for 50+ years because of our association with 3rd/4th world hygiene. A local man on a well traveled city street here where I live, now raises PIGS!!! and the smell is TERRIBLE, I expect court action soon from his neighbors.
The issue isn’t about back to basics. If you want that, you can move to a rural setting and raise whatever livestock you like to eat.
The issue is 3rd world habits and customs encroaching on others.
Since Mr. Corr pretends not to understand the issue, he’s a provocateur. His comments are irrelevant to the discussion. Ignore him.
Anonymous #24 assumes Bill Corr lives in La-La Land, which sounds like a really ritzy neighborhood way out of my price range. I wish I did.
In the past I’ve lived next door to hideously raucous white people with an incessantly barking German Shepherd and also more than close enough to very gregarious West Indians who obviously wanted the whole neighborhood to enjoy their hideous music [and car doors slamming at 4 in the morning plus the bonus of prolonged drunked and/or ganga-fuelled arguments and loudly emotional reconciliations.]
Living next door to people with a few chickens or pigeons is peace and quiet by comparison.
OUR CHUM AT —— 27 ——- is unaware that the vile and detestable Bill Corr is a pseudo-smart Irish-Brit and a sort-of white patriot and not at all a troll … kicked off leftie websites for being too smartie/right and and kicked off rightie websites for being too smartie/left …
SKIP mentions the vile stench of piggie pooh - NOBODY likes it and I have to throw up my hands and concede on that issue at the very least … NO PIG POOH NEAR ME - THANKEE
“Dey said ye weren’t fit to keep company wid da pigs an’ I stuck for ye an’ I said ye were …”
WHITEPLIGHT #25 said all need be said about gardens and nice birds
Suburban and even urban birdie husbandry is fine so long as nobody is ruined or upset or inconvenienced.
Even now, Peruvians keep - and love - guinea pigs as food
Let us all take our meds and/or smoke some greenhouse grass and try to be nice
“Everybody get together and love one another right now”
I’m all for back to nature using free range chickens and meat and such and getting ones hands dirty. However, it should be done in a rural setting or if you own a large plot of land that gives more than enough space to do this. But, if you live in a city or suburb, then no I don’t believe in chicken coups etc., because it’s smelly and disruptive to the neighbors and can be unhygenic. This is why their are city ordinances against this. Even in years past, most towns didn’t have chicken coups, only farms.
There is, of course, a trifling extra health risk associated with backyard poultry.
The pathogenic bird flu known as H5N1 can be spread by human - poultry contact, but the risk under normal circumstances is slight.
If the risk were more than slight, there would be massive premature die-outs of rural and suburban communities in the shabbier parts of Europe as well as in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Bulgaria and Romania have their problems, true enough, but premature human mortality due to the priximity of backyard chickens is not a problem reprted to the EU or the WHO.
The people of Buffalo seem to have struck roughly the right balance.
VERY LAST WORD:
Check out the movie FOOD INC.,
