Chickens in the City

Vancouver is inching ever closer to allowing residents to keep chickens in their backyards. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. In general, I am strongly pro-chicken. For a while, I had three chickens in my backyard in Surrey and have had a soft spot for the feathered purveyors of eggs ever since. When I'm at the Safeway, I buy the free range eggs so I know the chickens could run around like mine used to. And the anti-caged chickens wing of the animal rights movement is the one segment I support out of a movement I find grating and naive. My own chicken fancy leads me to want to support allowing chickens in Vancouver. That is, however, until I really recollect my own chicken rearing experience. Chickens are loud. Chickens are really loud. Vancouver is not going to allow roosters, but the male chicken is not the only one who lets you know when morning has arrived. Bright and early each morning, hens have to pass an egg and they let everyone know about it. We never got complaints in the suburbs, but that's because it was the suburbs. With large lots and big houses, there was space between our chickens and our neighbours. Vancouverites won't have that luxury living as close as they do there. Chickens also can attract mice, rats, and play host to a variety of germs and viruses including avian flu and salmonella. These microbial side effects are certain to be worse in the close confines of a city than they ever are on a farm or in the country. And finally, what happens when people get tired of their chickens or the chickens die? What's a person in the West End supposed to do with an unwanted or dead chicken? Well, Vancouver City Council has come up with the solution: a $20,000 compound for unwanted and abandoned chickens. That's a $20,000 tab to the residents of a city with ever escalating property taxes so that they can subsidize the irresponsibility of some of their neighbours. But despite this $20,000 halfway home for farm fowl, I expect this resolution to pass because it helps the city and its eco-Mayor achieve the self-created title of Greenest City in the World. I presume having chickens across the city is supposed to help cut the emissions from all those egg delivery trucks zipping to and fro in Vancouver? But regardless of these concerns, I think I'm going to enjoy this chicken experiment anyways. And what I think I'll like most is the image of all those smug, holier-than-thou, eco-Vancouverites cleaning out chicken droppings and collecting the eggs for their organic egg-white omelets out of the backside of a living, breathing creature instead of from the bright and clean shelves of their neighbourhood Whole Foods. Now THAT will be worth the 20 grand!