Let's get cracking, Ottawans,
with fresh eggs from backyard hens
Bylaw 2003-77, respecting animal care and control, currently prohibits the keeping of backyard chickens in Ottawa.
Vancouver has become the latest Canadian city to allow urban chickens along with other successful programs in Brampton, Guelph and Niagara Falls. Bylaws have been successfully passed in those cities, permitting small flocks of two to four laying hens -- no roosters -- to be kept in proper pens or coops which would control the birds.
It is now the City of Ottawa's turn to join the movement to change our municipal bylaw and allow us to raise a few hens so we can provide our own source of fresh eggs.
In our backyards, chickens will eat destructive insects, slugs, invasive weeds and table scraps (vegetable matter). Concerns about bird flu are misguided, as bird flu is best avoided by having a spread-out free-run population.
And as egg-producing garden pets, chickens produce far less waste than dogs, and it can be composted into nitrogen-rich fertilizer for your garden. What other pet does that for you on top of daily providing fresh, organic, chemical-free and hormone-free food and then gets up and does it again for you the next day?
Chickens fit perfectly into the strategy of a health-focused food system. Eggs from backyard hens have: one third less cholesterol, two-thirds more vitamin A, three times more vitamin E, seven times more beta carotene and two times more Omega 3 fatty acids.
Everyone should have the right to afford safe and healthy food. To have the choice to make informed decisions about their food and have food security.
Interested in change? Please contact the mayor, the chief of bylaw services and your ward councillor to add your voice to the growing number of people in favour of legalizing backyard chickens.
Supporters can sign the online petition at the website www.ipetitions.com/petition/ottawaurbanchicken. There also is a Facebook group called Chickens for Ottawans!!
Lyssa Rhodes
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