WINNIPEG — They’re not your typical pets, but Stacie Gottfried’s chickens have become a part of her family.
They’ve been living in her backyard in North Kildonan.
“We’ve had chickens for three years,” said Gottfried.
Chickens are banned exotic animals according to city bylaws but Gottfried is fighting to keep hers after they were recently discovered by the city.
“We thought if there was going to be anything, it would be the first year, so we were surprised when Animal Services knocked on our door and gave us a summons, that we had seven days to get rid of the chickens.”
She says for the most part they’re quiet, they don’t smell and they provide fresh eggs for her family.
“I can’t figure out who complained,” said neighbour Hermine Moehring.
Moehring can see the chickens through her fence and hears them while she’s in the garden, but said she loves them.
“They don’t bother me. In fact, I enjoy them, I enjoy them very much,” said Moehring. “Do you hear anything?”
Some neighbours do.
“The squawking in the morning,” said Judy Gierys, who lives across the street and wants them gone. “There’s a place for them; it’s not here.”
People can legally own chickens inside the city but only in an area where the land is zoned as agricultural, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
“Council as a whole can make a decision above and beyond that, but for the most part we stick with what’s in the bylaw,” said Coun. Scott Fielding, chairman of the protection and community services committee.
Gottfried will plead her case in front of that committee Thursday.
“City council seems very resistant to changing it and it really surprises me,” said Gottfried.
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