If you’re thinking of raising chickens in your backyard, think again.
Although a number of towns and cities have amended their bylaws recently, raising livestock if you live within the Cochrane town site is not permitted.
Subsection 28 of the town bylaw states: “No person shall keep Livestock in any area of the town except where the keeping of Livestock is allowed under the Town of Cochrane Land Use Bylaw as amended from time to time.”
Interestingly enough, subsection 29 states; “No person shall keep pigeons in any area of the town for any purpose.”
Sergeant Charlene Ruttle with the town’s municipal enforcement explained the rationale for the bylaw.
“It doesn’t provide an ideal living space for farm animals. Our yards are pretty close. So in residential backyards it isn’t appropriate.
“Not everyone wants to live next door to them. They have to have the proper structures, too. It can cause such problems as noise, odors and pests.”
Ruttle said people living within land designated as residential urban reserve district – pretty much anything within the town site and suburbs – are beholden to the bylaw.
In July of last year, the City of Red Deer council approved a “chicken bylaw” allowing residents to keep up to four hens for personal use.
An application has to be filled out and approved through the city. Coops have to be built according to specifications set out in the bylaw, as well.
Ruttle said she hasn’t been closely following the situation in Red Deer. “I’m not sure what their results were, what their findings and what their reasoning for it is, so it’s hard for me to make a comment on it.”
She mentioned that the town hasn’t looked at amending the bylaw as of late.
The fine for keeping livestock or pigeons ranges from $200 to $250.
In 2010, Calgary council voted down a proposed pilot project for allowing people to raise egg-laying hens in their yards.
In a CBC article posted in January, Calgary alderman Gian-Carlo Carra said he was planning to introduce a motion for an urban chicken pilot project.
More than 300 cities in North America, including Vancouver, allow urban chicken raising.
