Louise Hanavan’s chickens may not be in Halifax much longer but they’re scratching up some attention from city hall before they go.
By Whitney Hooper <whitneyhooper@dal.ca>
Posted: Feb. 12, 2008
Supporters of urban poultry rally outside city hall before a Halifax Peninsula Community Council meeting Monday night.
Louise Hanavan’s chickens outside of Halifax City Hall. Photo: Whitney Hooper
At a rally outside of city hall Monday night, the chickens arrived before the eggs.
Despite the freezing temperatures, almost two dozen people stood outside of the legislative building, holding signs with slogans such as “Hot Chicks Lay Eggs.”
In the middle of all the excitement stood Bernadette, Chicken and Captain Crochet, three egg-laying hens and the guests of honour.
The rally came as a warm-up to the Halifax Peninsula Community Council meeting. This month’s hot topic was the issue of residents keeping urban poultry on peninsular Halifax.
The issue first came up last month when Louise Hanavan received notice from the municipality that the three laying hens she kept in her Edinburgh Street yard were going to have to go.
“I checked with my next-door neighbours when I first got them to make sure that was OK with them,” said Hanavan of moving her chickens into Edinburgh Street last spring. “So I felt a little surprised when I got a letter in the mail from the city about a month ago saying that I had to get rid of the chickens. It didn’t say why, it just said, ‘Please get rid of your chickens by Jan. 31.’ ”
Since the letter was issued, Hanavan managed to get an extension to keep her chickens until Feb. 29. Hanavan also began circulating a petition, drafted with the help of the Ecology Action Centre, to allow the keeping of poultry in Halifax.
Jennalle Butcher, Marc Carrel and Marla MacLoed show off some signs. Photo: Whitney Hooper
As people walked up the steps to city hall for the meeting Monday night, two girls passed out hard-boiled eggs with messages such as, “Do your kids know where eggs come from?”
One rally participant explained that urban agriculture is a safe and environmentally friendly way to get food.
“I think when people grow their own food or keep their own livestock, that’s something we should support,” said Marc Carrel. “It gives us fresh food, healthy food and food that is close to us which means that there is little gasoline burned to bring it to our table.”
Louise Hanavan sports a homemade chicken hat. Photo: Whitney Hooper
The issue of urban poultry was introduced by Coun. Sheila Fougere when she brought forward two petitions in favour of allowing urban poultry.
“I have brought this to peninsula community council because this is particularly a peninsular issue and it is being brought here as a result of a complaint,” says Fougere. “I am asking for a staff report simply to look at the peninsula land-use bylaw compared to others in HRM because there are many areas in HRM where people are quite legitimately able to keep chickens.”
The complaint Fougere mentioned was a hot topic when the council floor was opened for public discussion. Hanavan and other pro-poultry representatives believed that the complaint came from a neighbour who was concerned about rats. Fougere says this wasn’t the case.
“I know I received one complaint, there was never a mention of rats. There was an inquiry about whether or not it was legal to keep fowl on peninsular Halifax,” she says.
Either way, it was clear rats were an issue for some of Hanavan’s neighbours when they stepped up to the mike to share their side of the argument.
“I want to make it quite clear that I have nothing against chickens and nothing against eggs, I love them both, but I certainly hate rats,” says Clarence McInnis who also lives on Edinburgh Street. “She might be able to confine the chickens but she certainly can’t confine the rats and they’re going to be down in my neighbourhood.”
Though the issue of rats and chickens was popular, it is not going to be settled any time soon. Community council agreed to a staff report looking into the pros and cons of urban poultry as a jumping off point.
As for Hanavan’s chickens, they’re scheduled to move to a farm in Hants County on Feb. 29.
Hanavan says she accepts this and is happy that the issue is getting some attention.
“My intent is just to open this up for communication and for the community to decide what seems reasonable,” she says.
