From: Patricia Combs
Columbus
I’m not sure Columbus city residents are aware of the chickens that are being raised and kept in our city. There may be over 200 homes. Some of your residents, myself included, have been fighting this trend for quite some time now. Chicken owners are claiming they are pets. I, myself, cannot accept this. They are farm animals. Can we purchase a chicken at Petco or Uncle Bill’s where pets are sold along with their food and supplies? Wouldn’t they be kept indoors where it’s cool and safe? No matter how you spin it or come up with how you spend time with your chickens, they are a farm animal.
We don’t have a home owners association. One council member stated they have a homeowners association where they live, so it doesn’t affect them. Sorry, but not our fault; we live in older additions, prehomeowners association. We do have a covenant, and it states: no farm animals. We shouldn’t be penalized for that. If our neighbors were true good neighbors, they would have asked us if it was OK to have chickens.
They smell and are noisy and are well-known to carry diseases. In fact, they were not allowed at any Indiana county fair last year because of disease issues. If you also observe, these chicken owners do not have their coops close to their homes; they are in the back of their lots. Why is that? Is it the smell and noise?
What would happen in a neighborhood of 33 homes if 10 of them had chickens? Would it affect the sale of our homes? I’m sure it would.
For some reason they have a sense of entitlement. I don’t get it. I have rights, too.
Our council members have been dragging their feet on this matter for months now. Meanwhile, these lawbreakers have had their chickens this whole time. In fact, some have added to their flock.
The city of Columbus should take a stand and keep farm animals out of city limits.
I realize there is a process that can be gone through to maybe get a permit, but this was not done, nor will it be. Everyone has an opinion, but if the majority of your neighbors don’t want the chickens in their quiet neighborhood, why should you feel entitled to overlook their feelings? That’s not being a good neighbor.
The council meeting was scheduled for June 21. The council members seem to take into consideration how many prochicken and antichicken show up at these meetings; this is not fair. Not everyone knows what’s going on. The prochicken stack the room. If this is to be fair, then the citywide ordinance would override any outside private associations. How else could this be fair? Everyone in the city should have a say.
A lot of established neighborhoods don’t have a homeowners association.
