Why i love this town, #12,156

From a series of postings to the Partners Against Crime District 2 listserv over the past 24 hours.

KJM: I returned home this evening to witness my neighbors string up two live chickens in the front yard and then slaughter them (for dinner). Needless to say there are no words to adequately describe my horror at this site. I do not live in a rural area, in fact I live in the city, right off of North Duke Street, in between Murray and Leon Streets.

I immediately contacted the Police department and the responding officer spoke with the neighbors, however, the police indicated that there was no specific ordinance about slaughtering chickens in the City. Despite that fact, this is highly unacceptable behavior.

Is there any recourse my neighborhood has in preventing future chicken slaughtering events?



BR: I am reasonably certain that keeping chickens within the city of Durham is a violation of Zoning ordinances, which is enforced by the Planning Department. If Richard Mullinax were still in town, he'd be able to tell you more.

I'd give Frank Duke's department a call first thing in the morning to clarify, 560-4137.

There may also be some county Animal Control and animal cruelty ordinances that have been violated by this act. 560-0630 is AC's number.

Good luck, and be persistent.



RHA: Folks,

You may not be old enough to remember when you could not get chickens cut up and ready packaged in the grocery store. You had to buy the chickens live. If you paid extra, they would slaughter and remove the feathers, and for a little more remove the innards. If you were poor like we were, you had to do the slaughter, feather removal yourself and then gut the chicken. Then you could put food on the table. I feel quite certain that the people in this incident are from south of the border, and are used to dealing with things the way I remember them. They are simply preparing their food. I am assuming that they were not raising the chickens in the city.



CB: Barry is correct. Having any livestock with the exception of pot bellied pigs is a violation of zoning. If the evidence is gone there is little that zoning can do. However, if there are still chickens running loose, contact zoning. You can do this through the internet if necessary. Regarding cruelty, as long as the death was instantaneous it is not considered inhumane.



KG: Having livestock within the city is a zoning violation. Zoning will issue a notice of violation. Some folks will then eat all their chickens and the problem is solved. However, lots of folks don't like the taste of old roosters and the man gets set free.

Now, what can zoning do about that? Cock-a-doodle-doooooooo! It is very charming every once in while, but every morning at 5 AM and you become about ready to try rooster stew.

Also, when a rooster comes running through the yard during a showing, it is hard sell a home in a neighborhood that is in the midst of revitalization efforts . The "fancy" neighborhoods get fancier and the disadvantaged neighborhoods lose out once again.



CB: Unless the chickens can be caught, there is little animal control can do to help. One of the problems is that zoning goes out and informs the poultry owner the fines and fees for having the poultry on the property. Then the owner opens the gates and everything runs free and they don’t own anything. I have discussed this with zoning and not gotten very far with the incident.

The italicized comments are from a county employee. I especially like the last one, because it encapsulates so much of the frustration that us normal, non-governmental-employee type citizens feel when trying to navigate the multi-layered bureaucracy that is Durham city and county government in attempts to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.

First off, there's some confusion among the citizenry about which department has responsibility for the problem. Livestock, except for certain pot-bellied pigs which are exempt by virtue of being "pets", is prohibited in city limits. Being animals, it's natural for the concerned citizen to think that Animal Control would have jurisdiction, or at least expertise. But apparently they don't, and there's little they can do, "unless the chickens can be caught." (I'm tempted to make some "i want you to catch the chicken between your knees" joke here, but i'll refrain.) Now, i have no idea how to catch a chicken, and i'm going to guess that the Planning Department doesn't either.

So that's step one of our vicious cycle right there.

The zoning department, having seen the chickens on the property, then "informs the poultry owner the fines and fees for having the poultry on the property." Good enough. "Mr. Jones, i need to inform you that the fine for keeping livestock on your property is $100/day/animal. You have 48 hours to get rid of these animals." I'm just making that figure up off the top of my head. I do know from experience that posting a flyer advertising a neighborhood event like National Night Out on a utility pole will bring a fine of $300 per flyer per day. So, $100 for a chicken seems reasonable, no?

Well, Mr. Jones is no dummy. He outsmarts the code enforcement officer by opening the gate and shooing the chickens off the property. Brilliant. No more violation.

Mr Jones is happy. Planning Department code enforcement officer is happy. Chickens are happy.

And free to perhaps become vectors for West Nile or avian flu.

But they have short life spans anyway.

So that's step two in our vicious cycle.

Vicious cycles generally only need two steps to keep repeating themselves. As this one no doubt will. I'm not as sanguine as RHA that these chickens were purchased elsewhere, rather than raised in the back yard.

I'm pretty sure, by the way, that the number 12,156 refers to the number of ordinances on the books in the city and county of Durham that no one in the government has a clue how to enforce.