SmallGovTimes.com

By: SGT News | Published on 12/13/07    

The city council in Chicago, Illinois, is considering implementing a ban on chickens as household pets, arguing that the bird's feces attract rodents and are causing “rodent control problems”.

"This past summer I started hearing that residents were letting chickens out of their yard and they were leaving poop and mice were feeding off of it," said Alderman Lona Lane. "Then we started getting rodent-control problems and, sure enough, it was the chickens."

In addition to rodent concerns, the city's supervising veterinarian said that parasites that the birds carry can be cause for alarm. Others cite noise as their main complaint.

"We don't encourage people to keep roosters because of the noise," said Johannes Paul, a business owner of a company that sells housing structures for chickens.

Some city residents say that chickens actually make great pets, can live in fairly small and confined spaces, and also provide fresh eggs to boot.

Owen Taylor, a training and livestock coordinator for Just Food, said that chickens are great for garden maintenance. "They aerate the soil, eat bugs and they look like little tractors, tilling the soil."

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