I have a serious concern in regards to Kristen Douglas’ article ‘Chicken debate returns to roost.’
Should we allow people to have farm animals in our backyards like chickens?
When I was growing up we lived in the country where chickens could run and peck at their food, etc., but I also remember the rats. The rats would live under the chicken shed or areas where they had a chance to get into the pen or coup to get food or kill a small chick or steal an egg.
Rats carry diseases and will become an extermination nightmare. Once you get them they still seem to come back. Even if you get rid of them out of your yard they seem to find a way to come back.
When we arrived in Campbell River 20 years ago, the home we bought on South McCarthy Street had a compost out in the backyard. We used it diligently to recycle all the things that should go into the compost. One day my wife mentioned to me she thought she saw the compost move. So I decided to dig up the compost to turn the dirt and the compost and there they were, baby rats. We had a whole family ‘roosting’ in the compost box. I began the extermination of the rodents. Well this did not stop the varmints. They came back. They came back for the next five years, but I always caught them in time before they could get established.
Do not get me wrong, I would love to have chickens in my backyard and have fresh eggs daily, but I have a wife who is allergic to chickens, not their eggs, and if people started to raise them near where we live we would have a health problem. Secondly, I am concerned about the attraction of rats to the neighborhood that chickens may bring.
The carbon footprint is negligible because we have egg producers right here on Vancouver Island. You just have to drive down-Island to see the eggs being produced.
I know this going to the council but let’s leave the farmland mentality to the country and not bring it into the city; otherwise we may need the Pied Piper.
Roy Moyer
Campbell River