Bid to allow backyard chickens in Aurora flies the coop

Council rejects plan that would have permitted residents to keep egg-laying hens

Yorkregion.com
March 1, 2021
Lisa Queen

Stay the cluck away.

Aurora council has chickened out of a proposal to let residents keep backyard egg-laying hens.

The news is “disappointing” to resident Darryl Moore, who had asked council to introduce a pilot project.

He will look for other birds of a feather -- residents who support the idea -- and try again in a year to convince the town.

“I suspect I will get a few more people to lobby council next year,” he said.

At the Feb. 23 council meeting, Coun. Rachel Gilliland asked for a staff report looking into the feasibility of running a pilot project.

She argued many other communities have successful backyard hen programs, which provide coop owners with healthy, sustainable food.

But, saying backyard hens would ruffle the feathers of too many residents who don’t want to live next door to backyard coops, Mayor Tom Mrakas and councillors Michael Thompson, Harold Kim and Sandra Humfryes rejected the idea.

“How many times had we had a report that said we’re going to put a community garden here and we have a bunch of people coming in and saying ‘I don’t even want a garden beside me’?” Mrakas said.

“I can only imagine what would happen (with backyard chickens). The people that I hear, I agree a lot of people think it’s a great idea but not beside them.”

Thompson pointed to a 2017 report from Public Health Ontario, which said there were almost 2,000 documented cases of people getting sick as a result of backyard hens between 1996 and 2014, including five deaths.

“The report goes on to talk about all of the ways to mitigate and reduce the risk, which is great,” he said.

“But at the same time, we’re living in the midst of an outbreak of a pandemic and even though everybody takes as (many) precautions as they can, there’s still a risk associated with it.”

Backyard coops are already allowed in rural areas of the town, which makes more sense than in neighbourhoods, Thompson said.

Because backyards would have to be large enough to accommodate coops, Humfryes said it’s unfair to allow backyard hens because many people, including residents with lower incomes, wouldn’t be able to participate.

She wants the town to look at introducing another way of promoting community agriculture or gardening initiatives.

But Moore is disappointed with the opposition.

“All the ones (councillors) that were against seemed to be against it because they’re afraid neighbours wouldn’t like it. None of them seem to really have any good reasons to be opposed,” he said.

Moore dismissed Thompson’s concerns outlined in the Public Health Ontario report.

“It’s all referencing food poisoning, which you can get from lettuce that you buy from the supermarket, too. Food poisoning is an issue with anything,” he said.

He was particularly disappointed with Humfryes for rejecting backyard hens because not everybody in town would meet the criteria allowing them.

“That seems like a real cop-out to me,” he said.

“My thought at that point was, is she against backyard swimming pools, too?”