Liverpool chicken bylaw causes flap; residents support plucky protester

A Liverpool, N.S. man who's fighting city hall for the right to keep some chickens on his property is getting support from people in the community.

And if beeping horns are a measure of that support, Edward Whynot has lots of it.

He's in his third day of standing outside the Liverpool post office to protest council's decision to force him to apply to rezone his property with a $700 fee or get rid of the chickens .

"I don't think too much of it because there's no guarantee that even after I apply that it's going to go through," Whynot said Thursday.

His next-door neighbour doesn't understand the fuss.

"The chickens are no problem at all. I wouldn't even know they were there unless all of this hadn't been going on. Youdon't hear them, you don't smell them. There'snothing," Robert Legge said.

"It's his passion,he loves birds,he loves chickens. Why keep that from him,really?"

There's no indication from the street that Whynot keeps chickens on his property.

He says he cleans the chicken house every day,and tills the soil of the birds'pen to get rid of their droppings.

Kate Peterson, whohas Maritime roots and has been summering in Liverpool for the past 25 years,happens to keep chickens at her home in Connecticut.

"They've given us eggs every day. They're phenomenal fertilizersandthe great thing, too, is they eat ticks," she said.

"They should probably abolish that rezoning thing. I would actually encourage chickens,they're a plus"

Liverpool Mayor Christopher Clarke acknowledges some residents sympathize with Whynot.

But he is firm rules are rules.

"We can't, as a municipality, allow flagrant violation of bylaws. We're being as tolerant as we can as this whole thing goes through process," he said.