North Bay man continues fight to have backyard chickens

A North Bay man is continuing his push to have city council reconsider the rules about backyard chickens.

In March, Brent Johnson was given a notice bythe city to get rid of his backyard chickens. He found them a new home and decided to then ruffle the feathers of city council.

• North Bay farmer crying fowl over backyard chicken bylaw

This week, he presented his thoughts on the topic to city council, and requested a motion be put forward to have the bylaws changed to allow backyard chickens.

"I actually amalgamated all of the bylaws from other cities and municipalities and wrote them out a bylaw," he said.

"They could choose to adapt that bylaw that I wrote for them or utilize the majority of it to write their own bylaw."

Johnson also spoke about common misconceptions people have about the birds.

"People think chickens are noisy," he said.

"A barking dog is what, 110 to 120 decibels. A chicken clucks for 5 minutes and it's less than a human conversation around 60 decibels."

In the end, the councillors didn't put forward a motion to discuss it further. Johnson says he's encouraging people to contact their city councillor so the issue is brought up again.

"People should care because it's an opportunity for them to have a productive pet," he explained.

"I have three cats. They're wonderful. People have dogs, but when was the last time that your dog made up breakfast for you?"