Windsor's most wanted chicken farmer
By Paul Breschuk
Features Editor
June 15, 2010
 Windsor has a dark secret.
In a city plagued so heavily by air pollution, blight, and omnipresent road construction comes a new danger: chickens.
Lurking in a nondescript Windsor backyard is the creature known as Gallus gallus domesiticus, the scourge of urban society. And worse yet, this threat might have already infiltrated the yard of your trusted neighbour.
Are you living next door to chickens?
Photographed holding his beloved chicks is Windsor’s most prolific rogue chicken farmer, a subversive element hiding from local law enforcement. Going by the name of “Jerry,” this rebel with an environmental cause feels that urban chicken farming is worth the risk.
“Some of us have been raising chickens in Windsor for a long time, directly defying the ordinance against it,” said Jerry. “We believe that just because there is a majority of people that feel a certain way does not mean that it is right. Just because a city says you cannot does not necessarily make their decision correct.”
That very few Windsorites understand the benefits of urban chicken farming lends itself to the sheer illegality of the practice. This is at least true for Windsor where chicken farming has become illegitimatized and redefined as a troublesome, archaic practice. However, cities such as New York, Chicago, Vancouver, and Seattle have all either overturned anti-chicken laws, or never implemented them in the first place.
Obviously, there are many urbanites who see the importance in raising hens as a source of eco-friendly food. It is discussed as a right that everyone should have, in every city, much like the choice to grow vegetables in a garden.
Jerry, an active member of the Windsor chapter of CLUCK (Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub), sees backyard chicken farming as a means of reconnecting to the food system.
“Chickens and cities, historically, have been co-existing for years and years. It is only since the rise of the big box grocery store that we now have this belief that chickens do not belong in cities,” said Jerry. “Since we have sanitized our culture by eating plastic-wrapped food that is doused in chemicals, transported from miles and miles, and produced in large industrial facilities, our sense of nature has been warped.”
For Jerry, the backyard chicken coop is that sorely needed link to a more holistic lifestyle. And with his hens producing safe and nutritious eggs every day for 10 years, it is also one less reason to drive to the grocery store.
Ottawa-based urban agriculture activist, Jacqueline Jolliffe, sees the popularity of backyard chickens as stemming from a broader change in public perception. In her study, Balking at Bocking: Urban Chicken Policy in Canada, she credits the rise of urban gardening to recent concerns about food safety and rising prices. These factors have pushed many to adopt a simpler, time-tested means of obtaining food while contributing to a local, community-based food network. Also, with much of our meat and produce being trucked long distance, with carbon footprints dotting the map from Mexico to Canada, the phrase “grown locally” has an even greater appeal.
Jolliffe makes mention of a B.C. study which found that Vancouver Island’s percentage of locally grown food had shrunk from 85 per cent to 10 per cent in the last 25 years. With similar trends found in other Canadian cities, these statistics paint the portrait of a society greatly alienated from its food supply. The solution, activists say, can be found in our own backyard.
“I believe more people need to take charge of their own food production, and in doing so, show their opposition to the processed food industry,” says Philippa Von Ziegenweidt, member of WECSA (Windsor Essex Community Supported Agriculture). “I don’t think keeping backyard chickens is the only answer to processed foods, but it is one practical way that people can access healthy food at a reasonable price. To me the issue is primarily about establishing better food security.”
Von Ziegenweidt also sees the joining of urban garden and urban chicken movements as providing an excellent knowledge-sharing opportunity. Group efforts of like-minded people, such as the ones behind community gardens, foster a learning environment where participants reacquaint themselves with the most basic building blocks of human civilization.
“Many people who have grown up in an urban or suburban environment have little knowledge of food production. Children learn at a very early age that chickens say ‘cluck,’ roosters say ‘cock a doodle doo,’ and cows say ‘moo,’ but the reality is that most children today have very few opportunities to learn about these animals in real life,” said Von Ziegenweidt.
While urban chicken farming is the next logical step in agricultural autonomy, the idea has met some opposing voices. Mainly, there are concerns of foul odours, disruptive noises, and localized increases in pest numbers.
“Noise is probably the most common objection I hear about,” said Von Ziegenweidt. “People are concerned about the sound of roosters waking them up. They do not realize that a hen does not need a rooster in order to lay eggs. In fact, having a rooster around is a potential hindrance because most people would want unfertilized eggs.”
Though, if noise is still an issue, one must ask how barking dogs can still remain legal in the city.
Other misconceptions involve the foul odours that are feared to be a result of backyard chickens. For Jerry, he was happy to boast not having any complaints from his neighbours (whom eagerly come to his door each week for eggs).
“The only time that you have a stink is when you try to cram ten thousand of them in a small, confined industrial lot. Or if you have somebody who refuses to take care of their chickens which would be the same as somebody who refuses to take care of their dogs, or cats, or themselves,” said Jerry who predictably pampers his free-range, grain fed chickens.
Compared to a hellish existence at the industrial farm where hens only have room enough to defecate on each other, Jerry’s backyard is a veritable paradise. This was proven to me when I visited his home, watching his recent batch of chicks scurry about, huddling and playing together as they explored their backyard surroundings.
Upon leaving, yet another fact became clear to me. Standing in front of his house, I observed how everything he had said about the sounds and smells of urban chickens was indeed true. There were none of either of those purported nuisances. In fact, nothing about his home led me to expect he was hiding the dangerous contraband livestock. I was left staring at the façade of just another “normal” alienated egg consumer.
With the efforts of local activists and educational groups such as CLUCK, Windsor city council has agreed to re-think its stance on urban chicken farming. However, the efforts, which began in November 2009, seem to be stalled at the licensing committee stage. In the coming weeks, word will be released on whether or not a study will be conducted to judge the social and environmental impact of backyard chickens.
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