Arthur resident’s petition pecks at backyard chicken ban

ARTHUR – Nearly four years have passed since someone tried to persuade Wellington North councillors to permit backyard chickens in the township.
Mark Baldock tried with a petition in 2022 and before that in 2020, and Dale Martin tried in 2017.

Each time councillors rejected residents’ pleas, citing the spread of bird flu and nuisances such as noise, vermin and odours.

Arthur resident Melissa Holwerda says it’s time to try again.

“I’m Dutch and I’m very stubborn,” she said laughing.

Holwerda started a Change.org petition advocating for backyard hens in Wellington North after her family’s plans to build a coop were thwarted by the township’s zoning bylaw.

“It was our plan this summer to see if we could afford to build a coop in our own backyard,” Holwerda told the Advertiser.

The bylaw, which dictates how land can be used, doesn’t explicitly prohibit the keeping of backyard chickens, but it’s not permitted either.

Agricultural uses are only for agriculturally-zoned properties, but Holwerda wants birds to be permitted in coops within Arthur’s urban area.

“I don’t understand the concerns with having them in town if they’re going to be contained,” she said.

Centre Wellington allows for urban hens, Holwerda noted, albeit with numerous restrictions.

“Why are they allowed (elsewhere) and Arthur is not? What makes Arthur so different?” she said.

Despite garnering more than 400 signatures as of this week, Holwerda said she’s already fighting a losing battle in petitioning council for a change to rules, considering past failed attempts.

Baldock, who brought a similar petition to council in 2022, told the Advertiser in a recent message he’s hopeful “council will recognize that there is an underlying yet consistent and growing number of citizens who are no longer happy with the status quo that council seems to be clinging to.”

Baldock noted the justification he provided in his petition, including food prices and access to natural food, have since compounded.

Councillors maintained the status quo in 2022, telling Baldock they were concerned the benefits didn’t outweigh the cons of the potential for the spread of avian influenza and nuisance issues.

Councillor Steve McCabe, whose Ward 4 constituency includes Holwerda’s property, told the Advertiser he’s never swayed on the issue during more than a decade on council.

“My position has not changed and it won’t,” McCabe said. “This isn’t the right spot for urban chickens.”

Holwerda argued concerns around the spread of avian influenza are “flawed” with biosecurity measures already established at area poultry farms.

In 2022, area chicken farmer Sean McDermid spoke out against Baldock’s petition, saying it posed “a huge risk to all area poultry farms” with the potential for bird flu to be spread via backyard chickens.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a respiratory virus spread each year by migrating birds and their droppings, affecting wild and domestic birds.

Once discovered in a domestic poultry flock, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) requires all the birds to be killed to stamp out the quick-spreading virus and prevent further spread.

An infected farm is quarantined, bird carcasses are disposed of and buildings are cleaned and disinfected.

The CFIA also implements movement restrictions and controls in areas surrounding the farm, and producers and transport drivers are to practice enhanced biosecurity measures.

“In town you’re not going to have chickens flying around everywhere … and your chickens are going to be contained,” Holwerda said.

She suggested permitting fees, rules and standards be put on the books and be enforced by the township.

Holwerda said she grew up with chickens in the backyard of her parents’ Fergus home without problems.

The hens are loudest in the morning when laying eggs, cleaning is only a once-per-week chore, and coops can be strongly built to keep out predators, she argued.

She and her siblings fetched eggs, and her father hatched chicks with an incubator.

“We didn’t have to buy eggs, we would just get them from the coop,” she recalled, adding she wants her three young children to experience the same.

When she and her fiancé moved to Arthur last summer, they were looking forward to constructing a coop of their own.

“I think it’s important for people to have a right to reasonably provide for themselves sustainably,” Holwerda said, noting food supply disruptions during the pandemic. 

“Whatever it takes, I think people should be able to have that opportunity,” she added.

Holwerda anticipates bringing the petition to council before the fall municipal election.

Should her petition fail to sway council, Holwerda said it still raises awareness and keeps the conversation alive.

“It’s been four years, let’s try again,” she said.