The chicken craze is coming to West Bend.
According to the proposed ordinance, individuals who wish to keep chickens must pay for and possess the necessary license, and must keep the area clean, sanitary, and free from odors and vermin.
The ordinance also limits permission to those living in single-family dwellings and owner-occupied duplexes. It states roosters are not permitted at any time and slaughtering animals is not allowed.
The chickens must be kept in a waterproof,
rodent-proof and predator-proof enclosure in a fenced-in area. They cannot be placed in the front yard and have a side and rear yard setback of at least 5 feet. Residents are also not allowed to place the enclosure within 25 feet of any residential structure on an adjacent lot.
Eh, whatever. We have ordinances for nuisances, noise, etc. As long as those are enforced, I don’t have a problem with people keeping chickens. It’s probably less annoying than some folks’ dogs.
This came up in Kewasakum last year with a few constituents that wanted it and I was open to it with some of the propoed safeguards in West Bend ordinance.
The other 6 board members wee not as open to it.
If West Bend passes this, it will be a mild political surprise. Usually larger metro cities are allowing like GB, Madison, Milwaukee.
As municipalities get smaller, generally speaking, they seemed more oposed to this. West Bend might be on “bubble” on this in terms of population.
“slaughtering animals is not allowed”
So I guess you have to keep the chickens until they die a natural death and then you can eat them.
Choking the chickens is frowned upon in West Bend.
“Choking the chickens is frowned upon in West Bend” except at the County Board meetings. They have made a career doing just that.
I think allowing people to keep chickens is a good idea; however, I hope they don’t allow too many roosters. If so I bet pellet gun sales are going to soar (sorry chickens, no pun intended).
If you can’t slaughter the chickens for food, I suspect there will be many chickens that die a mysterious death.
I also suspect the death rate of chickens will increase significantly, and there will be a lot of well-fed dogs in the city.