OLDS — Coun. Debbie Bennett’s feathers are ruffled over the possibility that chickens are – or soon could be – raised in Olds as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.
She wants council to do something about that. So she called for a “fulsome discussion” on the matter during a recent Olds town council meeting.
Bennett said as people stay home, they’re turning to “lost arts” like cooking and baking. She’s concerned they may go beyond that to raising chickens.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper echoed that thought, noting she raised that concern a while ago.
“I can foresee a number of our residents will be in fact bringing chickens into our town and they will not be prepared to look after those chickens the way they should,” Harper said.
“People are still under the impression they need a rooster. You don’t need a rooster to have eggs.
“Chickens are a lot of work and people are very naive about bringing (in) poultry and raising it.
“I don’t mind the odd chicken in town. I do not want roosters and I want people to have the ability to know what they’re getting into when they decide to raise chickens,” she added.
• COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section and interactive map for the latest local and national news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.
CAO Michael Merritt told council that to his knowledge, the raising of chickens in Olds is currently outlawed.
Community services director Doug Wagstaff said they’re currently regulated under noise and nuisance provisions of existing bylaws.
Merritt said staff would be happy to work on regulating chickens in Olds but they’re concentrating now on changes to the town’s the community standards and the land use bylaws as well as organizing community engagement on those changes.
That process is expected to take from now until perhaps the fall.
Director of operations Scott Chant echoed that thought.
“We have been doing the research right now on a number of items,” he said. “The dreaded murals is one. The chickens is the other one. So they were going to go sort of hand in hand here fairly quickly.
“The other discussion was other animals within the municipality as well; so not just chickens. We talked about rabbits and pot bellied pigs, those type of things,” Chant said.
“Bats,” a councillor said jokingly.
“No bats,” Chant replied with a short laugh.
Bennett said she was satisfied to learn town staff plan to address the issue.
