Ever since the idea of keeping backyard chickens was first floated by the Vision Vancouver-dominated city council, feathers and puns have been flying.
Chief among those crying fowl (sorry!): NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton, whose public ridicule of Mayor Gregor Robertons championing of backyard coops, and allotment of $20,000 to shelter an expected onslaught of wayward birds, has become a campaign tactic.
Chickens. They love the mayor. Their chicken brothers, sisters and cousins can all retire to Vancouver. And if they wear out their welcome in somebodys backyard, they can always move to the mayors $20,000 shelter for homeless chickens, Anton chided in a Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Sun editorial in August. Later, an attack ad featured her voice emerging from the din of one would assume clucking backyard birds.
But no such shelter exists, nor are there arent any plans to build one, says Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Animal Control manager Sarah Hicks.
Weve said that were not going to need it, Hicks told WE on a tour of the East Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»facility last week, where a lone chicken one of only three to arrive at the facility this year was comfortably hunkered down in a spare dog kennel.
And Anton may not be the only one to count her chickens before theyve hatched. The $20,000 council allotted for wayward chickens seems an odd choice in light of the fact that Animal Control doesnt apprehend animals or accept owner surrenders. Owners that do want to get rid of their birds, or other animals, must find alternative arrangements on their own, says Hicks. Its part of responsible ownership.
The birds that do occasionally wind up in a spare dog or rabbit enclosure are strays, says Hicks, adding shes told the city to reallocate the controversial funds in light of the fact chickens are essentially a non-issue at Animal Control.
We get about four chickens a year, except for a blip in 2009 when we got 10, she says, attributing the jump to the high-profile discussion of what may be the most mediagenic bylaw in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»history. It was in the media a lot; some people went and got chickens before they knew what the regulations were, she says.
The bylaw, officially passed in June 2010, allows up to four hens (no roosters) to be kept in backyard coops as long as they are registered with the city. To date, 55 households have registered chicken coops, the majority in East Vancouver. The city received 25 complaints in 2010 and has received 13 so far this year, mostly in response to owners letting chickens roam loose in their yards, a no-no under the bylaw.
Hicks says those situations are normally resolved with a brief educational visit by an Animal Control officer and the city has yet to issue a single ticket in violation of the chicken bylaw.
Of the three chickens the facility has housed this year, only one has been of the backyard variety a rooster found wandering through Stanley Park. The other two have been meat hens, including the one the facility hosted last week after it fell off a truck on the way to the rendering plants just blocks away.
Shes lucky, she gets a new lease on life, says Hicks, who quickly found it a home with a staff member whose family owns a farm.
Other than purchasing a book to help staff identify different breeds, costs associated with managing urban chickens have been minimal, Hicks reports.
And though chickens might be a serious topic for some in the run up to the civic election but around Animal Control, theyre just the opposite.
For the levity of the staff its a nice break to get a chicken in now and then.
