Do Backyard Chickens Need More Rules?
Drawn in by fresh eggs, or the possibility of feathered friends, people continue to flock toward backyard chickens. One researcher wonders if local laws are doing enough to keep people and birds safe.
Last September, a cappuccino-colored stray chicken appeared in Katherine Rae Mondo's neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. After it hung around the same intersection for a couple of days, Mondo took it in — her house had a coop, and she was already caring for a housemate's three-chicken flock.
She named the stray chicken Terribad, since, unlike most hens, "she was kind of a wild woman who didn't obey the rules, and she could fly," Mondo says.
It was easy to welcome another chicken, partly because Oakland's for keeping poultry aren't that restrictive. Roosters, a veterinarian and urban planner at the University of California, Davis.
