Ottawa: Councillor intends motion for urban chicken pilot
Ottawa Citizen / Neco Cockburn / 04 June 2010
Bay Councillor Alex Cullen gave notice Thursday to the community and protective services committee of a motion that calls for the city to suspend its animal-control bylaw for one year in urban areas to allow residents to raise hens.
The one-year pilot program would be evaluated and restricted to homes that have backyards, Cullen said, adding that other communities allow the practice. Ottawa’s bylaws don’t permit chickens and other livestock to be raised in urban areas.
The committee is to consider the motion at its next meeting on June 29.
Cullen said he had been talking to members of CLUCK (Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub), who wanted to plead their case for raising chickens in Ottawa’s urban areas.
CLUCK held its first meeting in Ottawa last month to get public feedback on the issue.
“They believe that this is a healthy form of providing food, eggs in particular, and they don’t see why there should be a restriction here in the City of Ottawa against raising chickens,” Cullen said.
