Help Bring Backyard Hens to Tarpon!

Tarpon Springs Patch Blogger, Denise Mannino, made a great presentation this week at the Tarpon Springs Board of Commissioners. Denise has been using her blog, “Sustainable Tarpon Springs,” to further the cause of sustainability in our tight knit community. Her blogs have ranged from urban farming to earthships, and she has gained quite a few readers from our very forward thinking community. Denise made a presentation this week about an idea that has been brought up quite a few times before, but I think this idea’s time has finally come in Tarpon Springs.

What is that idea? Conforming to county guidelines and finally allowing our small, sustainable, progressive community to have backyard chickens. This idea may kind of sound goofy to some, but the raising of domestic chickens for eggs has become a very sustainable, and healthy way to secure food and enjoy the benefits of fresh eggs, There are many misconceptions and false hoods about chickens and urban farming, but I hope to address them here, and call on you to email our Board of Commissioners to encourage this item to be put on the agenda and approve this measure!

One of the issues brought up by Vice Mayor Slattery was what the effect would be on deed restricted communities, and if it would open up legal trouble for these communities. Our own city attorney advised the board that they can write the resolution as to ensure deed restricted communities have the autonomy to create their own regulations. The worst case scenario, for some, seems to be these communities actually allowing the chickens! I am not sure what these individuals have against choice though, and especially democratic rules when it comes to homeowners associations, but this argument is pretty ridiculous. I think we are all kidding ourselves if we accept that deed restricted communities can regulate the size of your dog but not the chicken in your backyard. Those who move into these communities are well aware of the authority of these communities, and the city is obviously willing to write that clause into the regulation.

I think one of the best arguments I heard was the comparison between loose cats and loose chickens. I found it personally hilarious, because if you follow that line of logic, then cats in Tarpon should be outlawed too!! I don’t question that there actually may be a few people in the community that wouldn’t mind that, but we all realize how ridiculous that would be for a city government to tell individuals what animals they are allowed to have in there home or on there property. You deal with individuals who infringe on the rights of other individuals when the situation occurs, you don’t punish the many because of the faults of the few.

Some of the other arguments are too laughable to even mention, especially the one about bird flu and linking it to US hens, but in all seriousness this move would be a great thing for our community. The younger generation, that I still consider myself to be in, is very earth friendly and is really into sustainability and nature. I really do believe this generation is more interested in nature, conservation, and self reliance than any other generation in recent history. As mentioned on Tuesdays meeting, if you hope to bring younger people to the area to help Tarpon Springs grow and thrive, we need to institute these initiatives and stop trying to micro manage our citizens. It is the role of the city government to responsibly attempt to make Tarpon Springs a better place to live, not halt the people’s will for a few complainers.