The more I think about it, the more peeved I get

Can we keep chickens in backyard coops in our city?

Can we not?

The more it was debated by city council the more I leaned toward egg-laying hens in the matter. A free omelette. Nothing wrong with that, I thought.


["Still singin' them egg-layin' blues"]

Okay, and though the door was closed on chickens at this time I can live with that. We can’t collect eggs for that omelette but someone on council is at least collecting more education. (It’s all about public education, as I said earlier).

But I’m still squawking about the following:

“Council was told by city solicitor Jim Barber zoning and animal control bylaws would prevent a pilot program.”

I can understand if it is a money issue. E.g., we can’t afford another pilot project until we pay all the bills on the green bin pilot project.

And sure, we spend millions on crackers and cookies every year in this town but can’t afford a project that might lead people a few steps back from a highly industrialized, fertilized and fossilized agribusiness culture. Really, I can almost understand how backward our thinking is on many things.

But to have bylaws that stand in the way of pilot projects is something else.


I mean, we’re already vulnerable to greater money shortages in the future (oil won’t last forever and our country’s debt - at all levels - is growing quickly), so, to be barred from progress toward better self-reliance by our own bylaws seems ludicrous to me.

Thank you. I feel better now.

.