Politics & Government
Chickens: Fugitives? Or Family Pets?
For some, the idea of having chickens live in their neighborhood is just plain fowl, but others see them no different than they do any other family pet.
Once upon a time, nestled within a back yard corner inside a red and white painted chicken coop, . Three white, two spotted and two red.
Although technically, they weren’t supposed to be living there (), for months they existed relatively unnoticed by neighboring households, and for months they went about their happy chicken business of eating bugs, nibbling on weeds and laying eggs ranging in color from white to brown, and on occasion, even green.
One day, they heard a piece of news via the underground chicken railroad wire, that Santee Mayor wanted to liberate them. But alas, the City Council decided they didn’t want to put the .
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And now, the chickens continue to live their lives in silent oppression, lest they be exiled from the kingdom of Santee.
Their owner, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, said that much of what is assumed about chickens is sheer fiction.
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“People think that chickens are loud but that’s untrue,” he said. “Sure, if they get scared they talk about it for a little bit, or when a hen lays an egg it’ll squeak, but it’s not any louder than a trash truck driving by or a barking dog. It’s way quieter than that.”
The myth that coops have a vast and traveling unpleasant odor, he noted, is also just that- a myth.
“What you smell is coming from over in the back corner of the neighbors’ yard. They have two dogs and they don’t clean up,” he said.
After touring the chicken yard and venturing inside their coop, I had to agree.
Their diet is a mixture of chicken feed, chicken scratch (which is like a treat, he noted), weeds and kitchen scraps. They love grapes and cantaloupe rind, and watermelon rind is among their favorite foods.
For him, raising chickens is no different than raising any other family pet.
“They’ll run up to you if you come down to the yard with a bowl because they think its food,” he said. “But if I’ll sit down here or come down here to work on the yard they’re all up in my business. They’re super friendly. They’ll let you pick them up and pet them if you want to.”
He and his chickens are thankful that mayor Voepel is an advocate of urban agriculture, and are hopeful he’ll continue to advocate for urban fowl liberation.
“I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say how much I hope the City Council will consider putting this up for a vote,” he said. “I definitely feel they should change the laws to make them more chicken friendly.”
