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Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Natalie Garcia!!!
Natalie Garcia (#7004) has received a certificate of achievement in Each Other for earning a Beginner Level Community Action Merit Badge!
“I’ve been aware for a little while that my town does not allow for the keeping of backyard chickens. The city council is responsible for this law and I spent about an hour looking into the city ordinances. What I found was that it is unlawful for any person to keep any chickens, ducks, pigeons, or other fowl in the city limits unless the same are at all times kept confined in proper pens or enclosures. No animals are permitted to be kept within the city limits, including those described in this section, unless allowed by any applicable zoning ordinance pursuant to Title 15 of this code. All pens or enclosures required by this section shall be kept in a clean and sanitary condition and shall not be placed or maintained within seventy five feet (75′) of any dwelling. Further zoning information revealed that residential areas are zoned for household pets (defined as: Animals or fowl ordinarily permitted in the house and kept for company or pleasure, such as dogs, cats, or canaries, but not including a sufficient number of dogs or cats to constitute a “kennel”) and lofts for racing pigeons only. I could keep one cow, though. 12-7-5: KEEPING MORE THAN ONE COW PROHIBITED; PERMIT REQUIRED TO KEEP ONE COW.
There is a local group that is pushing for a change to these rules, to allow urban backyard chickens. It’s called the Ogden Chicken Alliance, and there is a corollary group called C.L.U.C.K. (Citizens Lobbying for Urban Chicken Keeping) and there are Facebook pages. OCA is Ogden Chicken Alliance and CLUCK is Ogden CLUCK I do belong to both pages and have attended my first meeting.
Many nearby towns DO allow chickens, but not here. There are semi-monthly meetings and the group has gotten a booth at the local farmers’ market, where we will be selling t-shirts and handing out informational flyers. Fingers crossed.”
Natalie, good luck with your work in passing a new city ordinance for keeping chickens. It is weird that you can have a cow but there is push back on chickens. It sounds like you have a good group of advocates working for the same end goal so hopefully things will move forward soon!