Monday, May 26, 2008

LA rooster complaints go unanswered

Yesterday's LA Times carried a story by Jessica Garrison examining the proliferation of barnyard animals in South LA.

While chickens seem to be the star of the show, she also notes there's more goats, ducks, geese and pigs showing up as the demographics of the area change from predominantly African American to mostly Mexican.

Unlike here in the Bay Area, the ordinances in LA allow for keeping (noisy) roosters:
The rules about keeping animals in Los Angeles are complicated. For the most part, Animal Services officers rely on distance requirements, which vary from animal to animal. Roosters, for example, must be kept in an enclosed pen 20 feet from their owner's house and 100 feet from any neighbor's house. Other chickens, on the other hand, can be 35 feet from a neighbor's house, while horses must maintain a distance of 75 feet.

Because many Los Angeles lots are no larger than 100 feet long, it is physically impossible for many property owners there to legally keep roosters.

Hen-pecked by constituent calls about rooster noise, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn recently proposed limiting each household to one rooster and setting up new procedures to deal with loud birds.

But animal control officers warn that they have a lot on their plates already, including vicious dogs, feral cats and thousands of stray animals crowding shelters, not to mention the occasional snake or bobcat.
So it seems that enforcing the rooster ordinances isn't at the top of the pecking order down south given the resources they've got available.

Glad we don't have the same situation here in the Bay Area (and glad we don't have the noisy roosters around us, either).

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