Urban hen advocates say Calgary ‘turned its back on facts’ by rejecting pilot project

Urban hen advocates say Calgary ‘turned its back on facts’ by rejecting pilot project

After Calgary council clipped the wings of a long-awaited pilot project on urban hens, some Calgarians are crying fowl and claiming such a study was just what the city needed to quell critics’ concerns.

“We turned our backs on facts,” said Paul Hughes, founder of Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub (CLUCK). “That’s not good governance.”

He told Metro the group has been trying for about seven years to get the City of Calgary to give urban egg-laying hens a try, and now numerous nearby communities are doing just that.

Recently Edmonton, Medicine Hat, and Okotoks have all started pilot projects, while Red Deer has just finished up its own and is now accepting applications from residents for backyard hen licences.

Shannon Sereda said she has had about six hens in her McKenzie Towne backyard coop for less than a year, but may now be forced to get rid of the chickens she bought from a Red Deer pilot participant.

“I want to be a good citizen and I want to be a good neighbour,” Sereda said.

She initially asked her neighbours to OK the coop, but later received a complaint.

Sereda described council’s rejection of a pilot project that would have allowed hens in 20 households across the city as out of the pecking order.

“The only way to get the information is to pilot these sorts of things,” she said. “They are making a decision based on misconceptions.”

Original story http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/1352701/urban-hen-advocates-say-calgary-turned-its-back-on-facts-by-rejecting-pilot-project/