Dear Editor
I'd like to commend Alex McPhail on the thoughtful account of his recent encounter with Tibetan chickens ("Encounters with chickens" News-Optimist, Sept. 28) and reinforce his conclusion regarding urban chicken raising here in North Battleford.
Wrapping up his travelogue he remarks that people's relations with domesticated animals in Tibet are reminiscent of our own, not so long ago. Family pigs here in Saskatchewan, recounts his grandmother (Mary McPhail), were typically given names and taken on as pets. While they eventually wound up on the dinner table, that didn't prevent them from developing into friends. Before modern factory farming it seems the distinction between companionship and husbandry was more blurred, more humane - and more sustainable.
Recently city bylaw enforcers shut down a local, backyard, egg-farming initiative and compelled my neighbour to give up her four extremely unobtrusive and well-mannered chickens. No longer would she have to support the hellish treatment of animals-reduced-to-products, or so she calculated. A few houses over, my 11-year-old son looked forward to befriending and helping care for the birds - not a bad experience for a city-slicker kid.
By all rational and forward-looking estimates, augmenting the pantry with more locally produced food is a good thing. That's why a growing number of progressive municipalities across North America, including Halifax, N.S., Victoria, B.C., New York, Vancouver, B.C. and Madison, Wis. are revisiting archaic laws that increase our dependence on chain stores and decrease our self-reliance and relationship to what we eat.
It doesn't take much research to realize that well kept chickens don't smell, they make less noise than dogs and produce a lot less waste. Bird flu is virtually a non-issue. Some people argue urban egg production reduces the values of their homes but real estate studies show property values remain unaffected in neighbourhoods with updated bylaws.
If North Battleford wants to attract people who value education, culture, quality of life and social justice - backyard egg-farming is just smart business.
Marcus Miller
North Battleford
