"I spoke to an animal control operator who works in Bellaire," Krebs said on Wednesday. "He said he's had one complaint about the chickens in six years."
And yet here stands Houston, all but chicken-free, and here stood Krebs, confused by the situation. As both a millennial and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Krebs was, naturally, unemployed. Ample opportunity to ask around about this lack of coops, to formHens for Houston, and to generate a bit of interest in both adjusting the 100-foot restrictions and legalizing chicken waste as fertilizer. Abundant time to garner support from the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, and to assure neighborhood associations that her organization wouldn't change any additional localized measures. Plenty of time to assure any potential detractors that roosters — unnecessary for laying any eggs, as both Cousino and Krebs noted — would still be barred. "These eggs they're layin' don't need any roosters," Cousino said. "They're just periods. And these birds have periods every day."
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Just look at San Antonio and Dallas, Krebs said. The former doesn't have a "setback" — the 100-foot demarcation Houston enforces — while the latter has shrunk its setback to 20 feet. And both have far fewer complaints per capita, almost none of which are related to the distance allocations.
"We looked at the actual numbers of these complaints, and they're almost always because of the smell and the mess and the animals running at large," Krebs noted. "We're not trying to change that — we believe no pet should be a nuisance, be it a chicken or a barking dog or a feral cat. And we're really trying to be good neighbors, which is why I think we haven't had any strong opposition."
Krebs pointed out that Mayor Annise Parker is already on board with the measure, and would like to see language presented to the city council before the end of March lifting or amending this ordinance. "Things have really started moving quickly since we got back from the holidays," Krebs said. "We're going to be meeting with BARC next week to go over our proposal, and we're going to open it up to other stakeholders come Feb. 15."
Whatever the outcome of the forthcoming debate, there's one little girl watching the deliberation more closely than others. And Isabella, according to Cousino, is eagerly awaiting the day she can go pick up her former hens and bring them back home.
