A couple of Calgary city councillors plan to present a motion to their colleagues in the fall to allow Calgarians to keep backyard chicken coops.
A city bylaw makes it illegal to keep chickens inside the city limits and the practice has been a hot topic for years.
Other Canadian cities permit urban coops but Calgary city council shot down a pilot project in 2010.
Lisa Housley has a coop in her southwest yard with three birds and says many have preconceived ideas about chicken farming in the city.
“A lot of ignorance towards really what having a handful of hens in your backyard is like. I understand that it’s not like the commercial operations, it’s not even like back in the day when you had 50 chickens on your farm. It's completely different and I think that once there’s some education about it and people understand and see operations like this, that they will realize it really isn’t that big of a deal,” said Housley.
“If it’s something that happening, if it’s something that people want to do and if it’s not a danger to people or to their neighbours and it actually brings benefit, lets figure out a way to regulate it so it makes sense,” said Ward 9 Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra.
“We just want to be treated equally like all other pet owners, we want the same responsibilities and we want the same standards to be applied to us as well,” said Paul Hughes from the Calgary Liberated Urban Chicken Klub or CLUCK.
There are about 300 illegal coops in the city and local keepers are hoping projects in Edmonton and Red Deer will help sway councillors here.
More than 400 cities in North America allow urban chicken coops.
