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A Chicken in Every Dearborn Garage?

First it was cats, than dogs, than more cats. Now, it is chickens. Yes, chickens in Dearborn.

Dearborn officials found 10 chickens in the garage of an east side home.

Dearborn officials found 10 chickens in the garage of an east side home.

Fresh from cleaning up a home where hundreds of Chihuahuas lived and died in squalor, Dearborn officials now tell Deepsaidwhat.com that they are working with a homeowner to have her remove 10 chickens from the garage of her east side home.

City officials found out about the chickens after a neighbor complained about the smell. Dearborn officials went to the home and found 10 chickens in the garage. The owner of the home told officials that she kept the chickens as pets for her young children.

While that might be okay for families who live on a farm, the reality is that in a city such as Dearborn with more than 100,000 residents keeping chickens as pets is against the law.

The owner of the home now has seven days to get rid of the chickens or could face misdemeanor charges and fines. The fact the homeowner has already gone to Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr.’s office to save her chickens, telling officials that her children are “attached” to the birds, suggests that this matter will not be quickly resolved.

We aren’t sure what is going on in Dearborn but this chicken case now brings to five the number of homes found with an excessive number of “pets.”

  1. In July, the city quietly removed some 50 cats from a home on the west side of Dearborn
  2. In August, hundreds of Chihuahuas lived and died in squalor in an east side home. Cleanup costs, along with city police, fire and other city officials could drive the cleanup bill to nearly $100,000
  3. In late August, some 20 cats were found in an abandoned home
  4. In September, an elderly woman on the east side called city officials to have some 25 cats removed from her home. All of the cats were healthy but the woman became unable to manage having all of them in her home, city officials say.
  5. Finally, in September 10 chickens were found in an east side home.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under Around Town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • tasty

    it smells like shawarma time for the chickens . . .

  • Donna Hay

    All she has to do is get a permit from the health officer.

  • Old All Day School Mom

    Is that a rooster in the picture or a chicken? Looks like a rooster to me, even though he is standing by an egg. If my neighbor had 10 roosters in the garage, that would be totally annoying, especially when they crow in the early morning hours. 10 chickens..not so much..though it would make more sense because they probably are using the chickens to produce and sell eggs.

    As long as they’re halal….

  • Milwood Fordson

    Donna,

    Good luck getting a permit, the only one who has one is Greenfield Village. otherwise no chance. If the mayor allows these than it will open a whole can of worms. Some people just don’t understand the meaning or purpose for zoning and the differances in land use. Maybe that’s something our schools can start teaching. Have a glorious weekend.

  • Donna Hay

    Milwood, if I were the women I would drag out the ordinance that states all you have to do is get a permit. Time for another change in the ordinances.

  • AVH

    Just getting a permit here will open all doors for the farm animals in this city. And that I would defenetly be against.

    If I were the lady I would donate the chickens to Greenfield Village (Firestone farm).

    Ten Chickens! What, does she have 10 kids too? Let the kids adopt one of the many cats or dogs in the Dearborn Animal Shelter.

  • Dearbornette

    Donna et al, this is not a rural community. If she thinks it’s appropriate to keep farm animals, she should move to a community where they are allowed. My guess is these “pets” were really being kept for slaughter. AVH, if she already can’t follow the rules relative to the chickens, I question whether the animal shelter should take a chance on her domestic pet ownership skills.

  • becki kain

    personally, i think it’s a great idea to keep small farm animals. I don’t see how that is bothering anyone unlike the kids that ride up and down my street, at high speeds, on illegal scooters (and w/o helmets).

  • mary m

    Yes I agree, the chickens are short term “pets”, and the owner has no intention of these chickens living long, healthy natural life spans. If you change the ordinance, the city will become crowded with “pet” lambs and “pet” goats. I sure wouldn’t want my neighbors to have geese, roosters, rabbits or potbelly pigs in their yards.

  • Donna Hay

    Don’t have to change the ordinance its already there.

  • wedontneednostinkingpermit

    The article states: “While that might be okay for families who live on a farm, the reality is that in a city such as Dearborn with more than 100,000 residents keeping chickens as pets is against the law”.

    I challenge DeepSaidWhat to produce the statute or ordinance that explicitly states that it is unlawful to keep chickens as pets. Because THERE IS NONE.

    Donna is right. Chapter 4 of the Dearborn Code of Ordinances states:

    “Sec. 4-1. Keeping of animals–Permit required.
    It shall be unlawful for any person to keep or allow to be kept within the city any cows, horses, pigs, goats, pigeons or fowl, or any other domestic animals or insects, except birds, dogs, cats or other harmless domestic pets, without first obtaining a permit therefor from the health officer. On the granting of this permit, the fowl or animals in question must not be allowed to run at large or create any condition, affect the conduct or disturb in any way any neighbor or human being, cause any nuisance as herein declared, or cause any condition that might be unwholesome or in any way affect the health, happiness and well-being of the surrounding neighborhood. The health officer shall have the power to suspend the above mentioned permit when a nuisance is being or has been thereby created, and to cause any such nuisance to be abated.”

    Apparently it is completely up to the whim of a “health officer” whether or not to allow a person to keep whatever animal, or whether a nuisance is created by said animals or if an alleged nuisance has been abated. Unfortunately, the definition of what constitutes a “harmless domestic pet” in the above paragraph is never defined, so maybe there is room for the owner to argue that the chickens in question are actually pets. Is a chicken a “bird” or “fowl”? the ordinance never clearly defines either. Unlike most other cities, Dearborn’s zoning ordinance has absolutely no language regarding number or types of animals/pets allowed in any residential zone.

    Back in the 40′s, I know of people in this town who kept chickens under their back porch and in their yard a glass enclosure of what started out as 4 but soon became 92 rabbits. And those animals weren’t pets, either. And everybody got along. Whatever happened to “live and let live”? I seriously doubt that the complaining neighbor really had a problem with an alleged smell of ten chickens kept as pets in a garage. Remember how long were those chihauhauas living and dying in inches of feces, how many times over how many months did neighbors complain to the city about the smell coming from that house before anybody did anything about it? I suspect the neighbor in this case is trying to get the chicken lady in trouble with the city, because that seems to be the national past-time of a large share of Dearbornites: being a busybody.

    Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Ypsilanti. All previously had ordinance language way more explict than Dearborn’s that prohibits “livestock” in residential zones…but now, all have new ordinances on their books this year allowing city dwellers to keep a chicken coop in their yard…but within very specific and narrow restrictions. Maybe Dearborn should follow suit. Make their ordinances simple and complete so that nothing is left up to “interpretation”.

  • Shady

    They can’t make ordiances specific because than the polititions won’t have wiggle room. Vague and ambiguious is the call to order!

  • Donna Hay

    Amen Shady, Amen.

  • Donna Hay

    Said – are you going to do a follow-up on this so we know what happened????

  • emanon

    Dearborn is all about “interpretation” of ordinances & I would love to do something about that before I die, besides continuing to vote against the incumbents. I do like living here in downtown W. Dbn, but I have been telling anyone who will listen for years NOT to buy property in Dearborn.
    The biggest mistake of my life was buying a forelosed house here (5 yrs ago, when they were few & far between). One inspector sees a few grand in simple repairs, the next one would much rather see a vacant lot than another ’20′s home, 3 yrs & $80k later we’re still not out of the woods. Now I just can’t get anyone to pull the trigger & grant a C of O, even though all the requirements have been met. Glad to see Dave Norwood got to stay employed–he’s a living example of the Peter Principle (look it up) if ever there was one.