Give Spooner City Residents the Right to Own Chickens

The current City Code of Ordinance states:
“Sec. 10-13 – Keeping of farm animals. The keeping of cattle, horses, hogs, poultry and other farm animals is prohibited within the city except in areas zoned agricultural.”
I would like to change this ordinance so that all City of Spooner residents can freely utilize all the abundant amount of resources that the keeping of chickens provides. Some of these benefits include, but are not limited to:
1) Having access to their own fresh, locally raised eggs and meat that families can choose to be organic and GMO-free. Keeping a small flock at home is one way we can do our part to reduce industrial production of crowded and dirty factory farms. It would empower us to know exactly where our food came from and what conditions the birds have been kept in.
2) By providing food for every family, regardless of their income status.
3) By poviding gardeners with high quality fertilizer. Poultry compost contains all the essential nutrients for optimal plant growth. It is considered one of the best types of compost material for garden use.
4) Reduces the need for more packaging and transporting for fertilizer, meat, and eggs, thus reducing our carbon footprint and landfill use. Direct use of the fertilizer is not only valuable to the home gardener, it’s also an environmentally friendly alternative to hazardous chemical fertilizers. Every time the coop is cleaned, it results in fresh compost material that can be recycled into the backyard ecosystem.
5) Chickens play a huge role in helping to naturally control insect and garden pests. Rather than using harmful chemicals and pesticides chickens are known to drastically reduce or eliminate grasshoppers, ticks, ants, slugs, flying insects, and even rodents by foraging on them and cleaning up food sources that attract them.
6) By keeping weeds and kitchen scraps out of the landfill, thus lessening household waste. Chickens love kitchen scraps, and they can even be a part of their regular daily diet, and in turn becomes the valuable manure for our yards.
7) Chickens are becoming more common as therapy animals for people of all ages, as well as helping to treat a wide variety of health issues such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, depression, anxiety, autism, psychiatric illness, and emotional distresses. Chickens are starting to be kept in nursing home facilities to help reduce loneliness and depression for elderly patients. Chickens are being registered as emotional support animals for their soothing effects on children in the autism spectrum.
8) Chickens provide a wonderful way for kids to learn about nature, agriculture, and the responsibility of caring for animals. They are a great way for both kids and adults to learn respect for all animals that produce food for us. Not only that, they have also been shown to increase social and play skills, enhance conversation abilities, and promote self-care and independent living skills through daily chores.
9) Studies have shown that tending to chickens reduces stress by releasing the stress-lowering hormone called oxytocin. Caring for chickens allows you to get outside regularly. Watching their methodical behaviors of scratching and foraging can slow us down and ground us in our busy day-to-day life, particularly in urban settings.
10) Offering simple companionship. If nothing else, chickens make awesome pets. Some families have sometimes severe, even life threatening allergies to your standard pets such as dogs and cats. Chickens would allow some families other means of providing a family pet that could cater to their families health needs.
11) Allowing city residents to own chickens would provide a boost to our local economy. Local businesses would be able to supply chicks and increase their inventory of poultry items to meet the new increased demand. This would prevent the need for local residents to go to neighboring cities for their products, and potentially draw in more rural customers as well.
12) It would increase attendance to our local county fair. The current city ordinance limits poultry entries to families living only in rural areas by excluding city 4-H families from raising birds to enter in the poultry show. Changing the ordinance would increase the amount of entries, thus drawing more attendance to our city.
There is no legitimate reason for any city to prohibit keeping a small flock of chickens, any more than there is a reason to ban the keeping of dogs or cats. Some of the most common misconceptions and arguments against keeping backyard chickens include:
a) THEY ARE NOISY. Chickens (hens) peep and cluck softly throughout the day and are silent at night. You are far more likely to hear a dog barking or children playing than you would chickens.
b) THEY SMELL AND CARY DISEASE. 4-5 chickens produce as much waste as a medium sized dog. A coop will not smell or create disease if it is kept clean and has proper bedding and ventilation. As they poop, chickens scratch through their bedding to compost their own waste which masks the smell. When properly composted, their waste material is rid of any impurities. Immediately washing or sanitizing your hands after handling of birds and waste prevents the spread of disease, just the same as handling a dog or cat.
c) YOU NEED A ROOSTER TO GET EGGS. This is simply untrue. A hen will lay eggs all of her reproductive life. A rooster is only necessary for fertilization.
What I am presenting is a change in the ordinance against owning backyard poultry in the City of Spooner and adopting a new ordinance that allows us to own a small backyard flock. Many cities in Wisconsin that are far more populated than Spooner currently allow chickens to be kept by their residents without issue, one of which includes our state capitol – Madison. Other cities that allow chickens to be kept in city limit backyards include Milwaukee, Green Bay, Neenah, Waupaca, Jefferson, and Oshkosh among many others.
I would like to address a sample of the new legislation:
1) The City of Spooner would allow residences to maintain a small flock of UP TO 8 birds.
2) ONLY HENS would be allowed WITHOUT proper WRITTEN consent from all immediate and adjacent neighbors okaying 1 rooster.
3) All stored feed must be kept in rodent-proof containers.
4) All coops and enclosures shall be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition. Chickens shall not be permitted to create a nuisance consisting of odor, noise, pests, or any other nuisance condition. Any report of violation is subject to investigation by local law enforcement.
5) No chickens will be allowed to free roam/free range within city limits out of the confinement of your yard. Any reported violation is subject to a $5.00 fine per bird.
6) Any unwanted birds must be humanely dispatched or found new appropriate homes. Section 10-17 of Spooner's City Code of Ordinances will apply to any abandoned birds.
I appreciate you taking the time to listen.
Sincerely hoping for a change,
Rachel Hanson and the backyard-chicken supporters of Spooner