St.Catharines urban chickens

Like anything new we expect opposition, it’s important to become educated in what you are planning on changing. Like a debate the side better prepared usually ends up winning. Please keep looking into the facebook group petition to allow chickens in St.Catharines. We have great information posted almost daily. Email your local ward councilor so that you have a say in this fight for eggs. We are also seeking groups to support this bylaw change, the more people in support of backyard chickens the better.

Sheri has went on the air to support backyard chickens, she did a great job and was really informative: http://www.610cktb.com/media/1185629/Backyard+Chickens

However our opposition also has went to the air, we would like to post this to also as a way to say we are not bias:
http://www.610cktb.com/media/1190657/Anti-Chicken+Group+Speaks+Out

The opposition has these worries, we can provide answers:
- smell-Little smell if coops are cleaned, just like dogs.
- Rats and bugs-These can be controlled by small wire mess in the run. Food brought in during the night and DE use will eliminate these issues, rats are not anymore attracted to chickens then green bins.
- Sounds -Hens make little noise, as we are banning roosters (they are legal now) that isn't an issue.
- Costs- As we have checked with the humane societies in other cities that allow chicken and found chickens are not an issue, St.Catharines humane society doesn't see it as an issue. The waste that chicken produce can be composted in a closed compost or placed in the green bin as they produce less waste then a large dog this shouldn't be an issue. The new bylaw looks like it will require a person to be registered at the city, this is what other cities do but they don't see more then 6 complaints a year, of those 6 most are rooster related ( some cities allow roosters) as we are banning them this shouldn't be an issue. Also I wouldn't think that people owning chickens would cost the city anymore then cats and other pets that don't require being licensed.

I decided that it was time we had our own website, so here it is. I would like my first post to be important so here are all the emails of  St.Catharines council.Please do this even if you don't want chickens yourself but are ok with other having them .
Mayor Brian McMullan bmcmullan@stcatharines.ca
Wd 1 Merritton Jeff Burch jburch@stcatharines.ca
         Jennifer Stevens jstevens@stcatharines.ca
Wd 2 St. Andrew's Andrew Gill agill@stcatharines.ca
         Joseph Kushner jkushner@stcatharines.ca
Wd 3 St. George's Peter Secord psecord@stcatharines.ca
         Greg Washuta gwashuta@stcatharines.ca
Wd 4 St. Patrick's Heather Foss hfoss@stcatharines.ca
                        Mark Elliott melliott@stcatharines.ca
Wd 5 Grantham Dawn Dodge ddodge@stcatharines.ca
                        Bill Phillips bphillips@stcatharines.ca
Wd 6 Port Dalhousie Len Stack lstack@stcatharines.ca
                    Bruce Williamson bwilliamson@stcatharines.ca