VILLAGE CHICKENS
THE PLAN
It is our plan to make an amendment to the Village Code § 165-82.3 which prohibits Village residents from keeping chickens within the village limits. We believe if villagers who want to responsibly keep chickens for food supply or pets can do so with respect to their neighbors and the safety of the community, they should be allowed to do just that. This Law was originally affected in 1965. It came up for debate again in 2010 under then mayor Tom Dougherty and left unchanged via a 3-2 split in the vote.
The time is now to attempt to change the law to help bring autonomy to the Village of Cazenovia. Let's bring it to another vote and hopefully welcome our fine feathered friends back to the Village!
OPPORTUNITIES & OBSTACLES
OPPORTUNITIES:
Villagers will be able to raise eggs and meat to feed themselves, their families and their neighbors.
Villagers will be able to gain food autonomy in the event of another global pandemic or any other disaster that may stress food supply.
Chickens also produce other fantastic bi-products, in addition to their meat and their eggs, they also produce nutrient rich soil that can be used as fertilizer for local flower or vegetable gardens.
Chickens are hilarious and fun animals that can be used to teach the younger generation responsibility and patience.
OBSTACLES:
The presence of Chickens inside of the village may attract new predators to the area, including but not limited to an elevated presence of coyotes and foxes.
Noise would be a problem that would have to be addressed, those who want to keep Chickens would have to be considerate of their neighbors and their right to peace and quiet, something we all hold very dear and a major reason why we live in the village in the first place.
Cleanliness could be an issue, this would have to be taken into account when crafting the law. Coups would have to be kept tidy, constructed safely and securely, and kept well within the property lines of the perspective keeper.
Security would be a must. Chickens, like all other animals in the village and town at large, would not be permitted to run about freely or break property boundaries. As this could cause vehicular accidents or damage to private property or worse, wild chicken gangs.
IF YOU THINK CHICKENS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LIVE AMONG US IN THE VILLAGE, SIGN THE CHICKEN PETITION BELOW.
Please, Sign The Petition Only Once! I will only count you once even if you submit 25 times, so save me the trouble of weeding through superfluous signatures! Thank you!
CAZENOVIA FIRST'S TAKE
People who live in Cazenovia should be able to exercise their right to peacefully, safely and responsibly own a means to raise food for themselves, their family or others in need.
We are aware of the challenges and potential issues this might cause which is why we want to craft a reasonable proposal for the Village Board that is comprehensive and fair to not just those in favor but also those opposed to this change to our code.
We only want to permit Chicken ownership, not cows, pigs, goats or even geese. That kind of change will be up to the village to decide upon should the issue arise.
We want to make everyone happy. We saw a lot of people were in support of this change and so we decided to start this petition process. If the petition goes through, we will work hard to make sure the law is written in a way that serves every member of the village equally. If the petition gets denied, we will take the loss and begin working toward our next mission to improve life in our fair village.
