INNISFAIL - Longtime Innisfailian Lisa Reid was turned in by an annoyed citizen for having pet chickens and now the entire previously hidden fowl-loving community may soon rise with jubilation to see their passion embraced by law.
Town council directed administration at its regular meeting on May 14 to look into the current bylaw, which outlaws pet chickens, as well as the experience of fowl-embracing urban municipalities, notably the City of Red Deer, which passed an urban chicken bylaw in 2014. Administration will report back to council with a recommendation by summer or early fall.
"I'm interested in it. I didn't see any negative response to it from the rest of council," said Mayor Jim Romane. "Golly, since (council) I've talked to the lady that was quite involved with the implementation of the chicken bylaw in Red Deer and she said she enjoyed the process, that it was a lot of fun working with the people who wanted chickens, and they all came up with a compromise for chickens -- no roosters."
"It will be interesting to follow up on the Red Deer situation to see if they've had problems with the neighbours," added the mayor.
Reid made a presentation to council on May 14 shortly after a Napoleon Meadows neighbour complained to bylaw officials she was harbouring chickens. She was told pet urban chickens were forbidden in Innisfail, considered livestock under the current bylaw, and was ordered to have them removed from town within 30 days.
"I was shocked and said I would talk to the town to have it (bylaw) changed," she said. Since her presentation, the town will allow Reid to keep her chickens until council makes its final decision.
Reid, who has lived in town since 1999, said she's been a devoted pet chicken owner for the past seven years, the last two at her current Napoleon Meadows residence she shares with her spouse.
"I had great neighbours and they would throw vegetables over the fence for them, and they were great. I really, really enjoyed it," she said of her chicken pet experience at her previous home near the Innisfail Aquatic Centre. "It became a hobby for me."
Currently she has four pet chickens -- three Sussex, a British breed reared both for its meat and eggs, and one Wyandotte, a popular show bird and dual-purpose breed kept for its brown eggs and yellow-skinned meat. Their names are Kentucky, Baked, Crispy and Fried.
Reid said her quartet of fowl are not allowed in her house, but they have always had adequate outdoor shelter, including at her current location, where she was about to install a brand new coop but was spotted by a chatty neighbour.
"They go into their coop at night and are so quiet. They talk a bit in the morning. They don't crow like a rooster. You really got to be right beside them to really hear them," said Reid, adding there is minimal cost to raise pet chickens. "A $20 bag of food can last up to a month and a half and they love corn on the cob. They are really cheap, and they provide eggs for us."
In the meantime, she told council her research revealed the Red Deer urban chicken bylaw has been successful over the past four years. Fowl lovers must get an annual licence to keep up to four chickens on their own property and follow a set of regulations, including having a properly maintained coop and keeping hens inside the coop at all times. No roosters are allowed.
For now though Reid and other nervous pet chicken owners in town must wait for council to consider administration's final report on the issue.
And if the town and council say no to ever having pet chickens in the community?
"I will be very sad but I will have to sell my birds, probably the birds and the coop together, and I will probably give them to somebody in Red Deer who can come and take them," said Reid. "It will be very, very sad but if I have to do it I have to do it."
