What’s wrong with a pen full of chickens? | Northwest | lmtribune.com

2022-07-30 17:30:28 By : Mr. Javier Cao

Plentiful sunshine. Near record high temperatures. High 108F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

A clear sky. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.

Workers move cases of beer from a trailer to a cooler Friday as they set up for today’s Snake River Rock Festival at the Nez Perce County Fairgrounds. The festival kicks off with a show and shine car show beginning at 8 a.m., with music beginning at noon and going to 10 p.m. More information…

In a year of uncertainty for the Pac-12, many questions at Friday’s conference media day swirled around the recent news of Southern Cal and UCLA leaving the league for the Big Ten in 2024.

This editorial was published by the Everett (Wash.) Herald.

You think it’s hard to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to change its mind on some long-standing piece of constitutional law? Try getting the Grangeville City Council to reverse its ban on allowing chickens in town.

Once again, a couple of Grange­ville residents are making their case that the city’s limited animal usage zones in town should be expanded to allow folks to raise chickens and rabbits. These residents have children who are 4-H members and want their kids’ animal projects to be legal. Which is admirable. There’s nothing worse than having an outlaw bunny running around town.

People have approached the city council before about this matter. As it stands, animals that are considered livestock are limited to two zones in Grange­ville. And, in the past, city councilors have been unwilling to loosen up those laws to allow people in all four zones to have the same rights.

I’ve always thought it was kind of incongruous that a city that has a rodeo grounds right in the middle of town — where horses and pigs and bulls with horns can roam at will — would balk at having a pen full of chickens here and there. Chickens can sometimes get on people’s nerves with their gossipy clucking and doing their business on the hoods of peoples’ cars.

However, a little pile of chicken droppings is nothing compared to the load a bull would leave on your car hood if he got the chance.

Frankly, I don’t understand the resistance to chickens, rabbits and other small creatures being allowed passage in city limits. Even metropolitan areas have come around in the past several years to allow citizens some leeway when it comes to raising animals other than cats or dogs. People everywhere are realizing that — unlike dogs that can bark all night or cats that do their business in peoples’ flower beds — chicken, rabbits, goats, lambs, honey bees and other animals sometimes considered “livestock” benefit the environment as well as the people who own them by providing food. It has been shown that people who raise animals are calmer and, well, a little less animalistic.

And I would think that people who flock to Idaho County would expect to find this a hospitable place for chickens and rabbits, pigs, horses, cows — you name it. Nothing says you’re out of the big city like the smell of manure in the air.

So, best wishes to the folks who are trying to get the Grangeville City Council to change the rules. I hope to hear clucking out my back door soon.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.

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