Animal Care Services and city may revise backyard chicken ordinance

A rooster’s shrill cry echoed along 36th Street as Animal Care Services permit officers Aaron Cadena and Caroline Pelkey arrived in a West Side neighborhood to follow up on a nuisance call.

Several chickens and a rooster skittered across dry grass to seek shade from the afternoon sun beneath an old truck rusting in a nearby backyard.

Neighbors, sitting on their front porches, pointed the officers toward a home in the 2000 block of El Jardin, where a caller said chickens were jumping the fence into other yards. Cadena knocked on the door.

It was answered by Angelita Sanchez, 88, who listened as he explained the reason for their visit. The uniformed pair followed Sanchez, clad in an ankle-length housecoat, to her backyard, where they saw more than skittish fowl. They also found three dogs, a duck, a pigeon and a magnificent peacock, perched on a dusty, wooden bird coop like a statue.

Sanchez has lived on the street for more than 50 years, before the city annexed the area and set ordinances that restricts the number of animals a resident can have on their property. There was a time when she also had two horses and a baby bull. Like many of her neighbors, Sanchez grew up raising chickens that laid eggs she cooked for family meals.

“I didn’t know,” Sanchez said, referring to the city ordinance setting limits of no more than three chickens. “There have always been chickens in the neighborhood.”

ACS field investigation supervisor Joel Skidmore joined the scene as Pelkey tipped over a plastic child’s pool to spill out stagnant water.

“This is an example of someone who has pets for enjoyment,” Skidmore said. “These are people who need to come in compliance and continue doing what they’re doing.”

Cadena told Sanchez she needed to apply for an excessive animal permit that costs $25 annually, plus a $25 inspection fee.

ACS is in the final phase of developing possible revisions of the city’s animal ordinance which, if enacted into law, will affect Sanchez and thousands of pet owners across the area. Recommended changes, which will be presented to the City Council again in August, are the result of residents answering online surveys, in Spanish and English, and providing feedback at nine public meetings ACS sponsored from February through May.

One of the proposals would limit roosters to one per residence. Skidmore said multiple roosters at a single home raises a red flag; that could indicate an involvement in cock fighting, which is illegal in the state of Texas.

City code limits residents to a maximum of three domestic fowl; current law allows them to be all roosters. There is no limit specified under the excessive animal permit, but there are restrictions regarding distance from human dwellings, sanitation and noise.

ACS assistant director Shannon Sims said there has been a small but vocal group at the planning meetings who want to lift all restrictions on chickens. He said ACS is concerned that could create uncontrolled proliferation of poultry, with potential health and safety issues. The agency also had been concerned about a bill in the Texas Senate that would have increased the limit of poultry to eight per residence, but it failed.

Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said she grew up in a community where raising chickens was a way of life.

“It’s part of certain neighborhoods’ cultural identity,” Viagran said. “And getting this information (proposed changes) out is extremely important.”

Later, near Holly and Barclay streets, Cadena, Pelkey and Skidmore followed up on an anonymous call about noisy roosters. No one was home, but when the officers turned the corner into the backyard, they saw a row of wooden and wire chicken coops containing 11 chickens, including four roosters, lining the fence. Cadena said the coops didn’t meet the minimum distance of being 50 feet from the nearest dwelling.

“These are the type of situations that we need to address and have stronger ordinances in place to prevent,” Skidmore said, as the roosters crowed loudly. “The noise alone can be a nuisance to a reasonable person and that’s something we’re trying to rectify with the ordinance change.”

Cadena scooped a rooster from a coop and noted the removal of the bird’s wattle under the neck and the comb from the top of bird’s head. The other roosters had the same alterations. There was also a homemade training pad and a container for transporting the poultry.

“We’ll give them an order to remove the chickens from the property,” Cadena said. “It’s the totality of everything that shows that these birds are being used for cock fighting, maybe not on a grand scale, but still being used to fight.”

Their next stop was two houses away, where they found three dogs and 15 chickens, including two roosters, in the backyard and one parrot inside a tall cage draped with a yellow raincoat out front. They left the homeowner a notice that the number of animals was over the limit and gave the homeowner a deadline to increase the body weight of one of the dogs.

ACS field operations supervisor Aimee DeContreras said there are tens of thousands of roosters within the city limits and many are bred for cockfighting. With blood sports, she said, drugs and weapons often are involved.

“We know already, it’s just a matter of time,” DeContreras said. “There are a lot of hooks in the water and it’s not going away.”