Claire,
Thanks for the support. I hope you’re able to make it. We have tried to contact the Fort Collins group but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Torrie,
I think that’s a good point that we’ll bring up…that they are our pets and we’re not a commercial entity anyway.

Fran,
Thanks for the articles. I hadn’t seen the one in Time. I have been on the Backyard Chickens forum. It is interesting how many people have had this same exact fight! At least we have some precedence.

Katrina,
We wanted to raise chickens to get a feel for it as experience/training for Puerto Rico. My parents had had them when I was younger and I had a couple of pet chickens (that didn’t last too long -they were eaten by something) but never really thought much about them until now as an adult. Britton had never raised them so they were a completely new idea for him. And he thinks they’re great and easier than most pets (so do I).

When we have to deal with asinine rules like this, it really makes me want to make a run for it! Puerto Rico definitely allows for a lot more personal freedoms and less restrictions. As you said, these can have both pros and cons. The roosters for instance may be a little bit hard to get used to at 3am, but overall I am ready for some of those pros…
…Just…a….little…longer…argh

Section 7 Animals
7.04.097 Domesticated animal.
Domesticated animal means a pet or companion animal that is kept by humans for companionship, amusement or for
the beauty of its appearance or utterances, rather than for economic reasons.

***** Your chickens are NOT being raised for economic reasons. While one of them may produce eggs, they are essentially PETS.

7.04.105 Fowl.
Fowl means any bird customarily used in the market or household for food consumption, such as a chicken, duck, goose, guinea, peafowl, turkey and pheasant.

***** The chickens “may” be considered Fowl. However, there are no restrictions pertaining to fowl in section 7.

7.04.170 Livestock.
Livestock means any bovine animal, horse, mule, ass, sheep or goat.

***** Under animals, they do NOT list chickens as “Livestock”.

7.08.095 Fencing of animals without adequate space unlawful.
It is unlawful to confine an animal (including domesticated, wild or performing animals and livestock) within a fenced
yard or fenced pen without providing adequate space for exercise. Adequate space means each animal should have the
ability to move about freely and exercise consistent with the needs of the animal, considering the age, size, physical
condition, medical condition, species and breed. The fencing of the yard or pen shall be of a sufficient height and of a
sufficient material to prevent the animal from escaping from the fenced yard or pen and to prevent harm to the animal.

***** Here they talk about providing adequate fencing , and they define that as allowing the animal to move about freely. Your chickens have adequate space to “move about freely” as well as other requirements listed.

Now jump the section they listed that you violated… 18.58.030.. Under definitions they list the following:

Animal confinement use shall mean a place for confinement of livestock for the purposes of commercial food
production and where feeding of the livestock is other than grazing and where the capacity at any one (1) time is
greater than permitted on the Animal Unit Equivalency Chart for the zoning district in which it is located. Such animal
confinement uses may include dairies, feedlots, poultry and swine production facilities.

***** Note they say “for the purposes of commercial food production” and they talk about dairies, feedlots, poultry and swine production facilities. You are not one of these.

Animal unit shall mean a unit of measurement used to determine the animal capacity of a particular site or parcel of
land and to establish an equivalency for various species of livestock. The animal unit capacity is determined by
multiplying the number of animals of each species by the appropriate equivalency factor from the table below and
summing the resulting totals for all animal species contained on a site or parcel of land. The number of animals
allowed per acre on a site or parcel of land is based on area requirements for each species, and the resulting acreages
are also summed. If the maximum number of permitted animal units as provided on the Animal Unit Equivalency
Chart is exceeded for a property that does not contain an animal confinement use as of the effective date of this Code,
the property and use contained on said property shall be determined to be a nonconforming use and subject to the
provisions in this Chapter.

**** Again they talk about “animal confinement use”, which they defined as “Commercial Food Production”. You are not a commercial food production facility.

Next they list livestock under section 18:

Livestock shall mean animals typically related to agricultural or farming uses, including but not limited to, chickens,
swine, sheep, goats, horses, cattle, yaks, alpacas and emus.

***** How can they list livestock in section 7 as one thing, then re-list it in section 18 with more types of animals? Furthermore, under section 18 they continually talk about Commercial production.

Is it me, or are they trying to apply a code to your situation that doesn’t even apply because technically the chickens are PETS and you are not in any way shape or form a commercial production facility?

The waiver is a possibility and I think with where we live it might not be a problem. It costs $300 and there is no guarantee that it would help.

I think what we are going to do is just go to city council. (Cassie has this all planned out). Worst case is we get to keep 1 of our chickens. Best case is we get the rules changed just a bit to allow everyone to keep maybe 4 or 5 hens (no roosters).

Over chickened..lol. I like that.

We could have 15 pit bulls and that would be ok. Nobody can have too many vicious dogs…

The fight to get this changed won’t be too bad, although we won’t know until we try