The Rural Voice, 1983-07, Page 39Pay Only Once &
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KEITH ROULSTON
Chicken City
Keith Roulston
Congratulations to the city fathers of
Toronto for the bold and courageous
move they made in May to rid the city of a
horrible nuisance, little backyard coops
of chickens and pens of rabbits and
goats.
In the face of numerous (well, one or
two) complaints about the presence of
these pests, particularly in the backyards
of immigrant neighbourhoods, the city
has decided to take action and passed a
by-law that no farm animals can be kept
in the city.
And a good thing, too. I mean for one
thing, chickens just don't fit with the
image of Tcronto. Toronto is "People
City" not "Chicken City." Heavens, it
took a hundred years for the city to bury
the "Hogtown" label and now people
want to keep rabbits and goats. The city
fathers worked so hard to get shining
steel and glass buildings like the Eaton
Centre and then somebody wants to ruin
the whole manicured look of the place by
keeping chickens in a backyard. Yuk!
Toronto is supposed to be a city filled
with the brightest, most fashionable
people in Canada. There is definitely
nothing fashionable about keeping farm
animals. Our Toronto-based media has
been telling us for years that the only
people who are still out on the farms are
those who aren't smart enough to move
to a gleaming city like Toronto.
Farming is passe. It's old fashioned. I
mean a few people have to stay out there
on the farms to provide food for the fancy
city restaurants and cafes but let's keep
them safely at a distance, a hundred
miles or so away from the nearest
condominium.
Now there were, horrors, some city
people who argued that these animals
weren't doing any harm and for the sake
of individual liberty, people should be
allowed to keep them if they kept them in
a sanitary way that didn't offend neigh-
bours. Even some of the chic people of
the city argued the case. A famous
columnist who reviews fancy restaurants
for a newspaper even admitted she kept
eight chickens. But one alderman rightly
dismissed all this talk of growing your
own food as "romantic clap -trap" and led
the vote to ban the animals.
There will be people who argue that if
dogs and cats can be kept in the city,
even in apartment buildings, then why
shouldn't chickens, rabbits and goats be
allowed. Well, cats, after all can be
trained to go in a kitty litter. This means
more retail sales for stores selling kitty
litter and more jobs making kitty litter.
Rabbits, on the other hand, don't go in
kitty litter. You usually put a tray under
them to catch their droppings. That
doesn't create jobs for anybody but the
person who has to empty the tray.
From a sanitary point of view, goats
stink up the backyard with their refuse.
Dogs don't. They do it in the park. While
chickens infest the yard of their owner
with their droppings, the owner of a dog
can keep his yard perfectly clean by
training his dog to do it in the
neighbour's backyard.
Yes, gentlemen and ladies, you have
done a great thing for the city of Toronto,
perhaps all of Canada, by banning these
small animals. If city people get too
close to these farm animals, if they have
to get rid of their own manure and feed
the little beasts twice a day, they might
start feeling sorry for the farmers who
have to do it on a much larger scale and
be willing to pay more for their food
which would wreck the whole economy.
I know there are those who will say that
these are only a few animals and what's
all the fuss about, but you may have
nipped this in the bud. I mean if people
find out that chicken farmers really are
making those exorbitant profits the
Consumer Association and the Globe
and Mail keep claiming, who knows, we
might have developers wanting to turn
their condominiums into chicken
barns. E
Keith Roulston has been writing this
column since 1977 and is the originator
and former publisher of The Rural Voice.
He has written several successful plays
and is connected with the Blyth Summer
Festival. He lives with his family near
Blyth.
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off Highway 21
THE RURAL VOICE, JULY 1983 PG. 37