Council gives resident extra time for her hens but it’s no carte blanche for everyone in city
NEWS/ CITY HALL — A chicken owner got a reprieve for her hens today, but others who secretly harbour chickens on their city lots shouldn’t get too excited — there’s no amnesty in Kamloops.
Lyann Wourms.
Lyann Wourms had a visit from bylaws officers to her home on Lister Road in Heffley Creek after a neighbour complained about smell, and was handed an enforcement notice against keeping chickens.
But Wourms told City council today the smell wasn’t from her chickens at all, but from a nearby manure pile, and asked council to give her more time to relocate her chickens.
“I would hate to have to kill them,” she said, saying her chickens have “a lot of support” in the neighbourhood.
Coun. Arjun Singh asked if she’d rather keep the chickens if there was a work-around. “I would love to keep them,” Wourms said. “I would get rid of them if I had to but I don’t want to.”
With that, the chicken debate was off and running. Several times in the past, council has resisted entreaties from chicken lovers to allow hens on city-sized lots but today there was more sympathy for them.
Coun. Ken Christian proposed Wourms be given until July 31 to deal with the chickens but Coun. Tina Lange thought there should be “a stay on proceedings with Ms. Wourms and wait until we have a report through the urban agricultural study where possibly we might decide it’s a great idea to have a few hens on your property.”
Urban chickens are being considered as part of the urban agricultural plan, and Coun. Arjun Singh agreed with Lange but he said, “It’s not a carte blanche for folks to do this all over the community. It’s case by case.”
Mayor Peter Milobar also had a concern about that, saying he didn’t want people all over town suddenly thinking they can have chickens on small lots. He suggested that the motion be specific to Wourms’ property and limited to her current half-dozen hens.
Coun. Marg Spina said there are a lot of secret chickens in Kamloops. “It really does depend on their neighbours. Some people I’ve met say they’ve had chickens for 30 years.”
Christian stuck to his July 31 proposal. “I’m sure the future of the city of Kamloops isn’t hanging in the balance on this discussion,” he said, but if an exception was made — the agricultural plan probably won’t be ready until next year — “you really have no basis on which to send your bylaw enforcement officers to any complaint.”
Coun. Pat Wallace warned council to “remember the dogs,” and all the residents who sought exemptions for having too many dogs. “People rolled through the front door and we forgave them all.”
Allowing Wourms six chickens would be “the tip of the iceberg” and next it would be cute goats and horses, she said.
“They are nice to have and they’re kind of cute and friendly and they also attract mice and other vermin,” she said of chickens, saying people can get lots of fresh eggs at the market.
“There’s so many people in this city that have chickens in their back yard and because they’re quiet and unobtrusive and don’t cause any smell,” said Lange. She said in her nine years on council this was the first chicken complaint filed by a neighbour.
“It’s not the end of my world either way,” said Milobar. “If they stay, they stay. I’ll still sleep at night.”
Council decided by a 5-3 vote to let Wourms keep her chickens until the urban agriculture plan is done.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I lived on a farm until I was 20, and we had chicken. They make noise all day, and they stink. Anybody claiming otherwise doesn’t have a clue.
As long as we live in society we have to abide by an unwritten social contract, and one part is the need to respect your neighbours and not impose upon them any undue hardship. When anyone doesn’t went to abide by that, it’s when we need by-laws. And even by-laws are not good enough when the city leaders don’t have the guts to enforce them, as we saw lately with the decision allowing someone to keep a third yappy dog despite the neighbours being fed up with the noise.
Now we will see if chicken lovers will have their ways, or if councillors will show some spine and tell them that chicken belong on a farm, not inside a city.
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The older I get, the more stupid the world seems to get.
Chickens and bees are the stuff of LIFE!
On another note for which I will forever remember Terry Lake (former Mayor) and fellow Councillors of the day, is the backyard fire.
It now costs $50.00 to have 3 wiener roasts per year. How the cost for this privilege has secretly doubled is beyond me. I burn wood in my fireplace all winter, 24 hours a day, often with the damper in use, thus depleting the oxygen somewhat to slow the burn. A free burning campfire has no such restrictions, save for starting and searching for the correct fire/oxygen mix. A clean burn for the most part, follows, for the duration of the fire.
But it seems a mine (Ajax) is ok, blowing particulates (almost) forever over our fair city. I wonder why the Canadian Lung Association, so vocal over backyard fires, is so strangely silent on this issue. I wonder why Terry Lake, when he was Minister of the Environment, had nothing to say about these mining particulates, when he was so adamant about the particulates from backyard fires?
Sorry for ranting, but it’s all kind of in the same stupid ballpark.
Rick Mercer (and his rants) can’t be everywhere, so I humbly attempt to speak for his sort of total logic, of which I have a great deal of admiration. I do hope he’d find me not too far off the mark.
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