There is tremendous joy in raising/growing your own high quality food, just ask a gardener.  Keeping a small flock of hens in your own backyard is an easy and fun way to provide delicious high quality eggs for your family.  This used to be a very common practice until by-law reviews, that swept across North America, banned the keeping of backyard hens. However, with the Eat Local food movement, and other sustainable food movements gaining popularity, many cities across North America have re-vamped their by-laws to permit the small-scale raising of backyard hens. There are 86+ cities in the USA that allow backyard chickens, some of which are the largest metropolitan areas in North America, some of these cities include New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami, and Minneapolis.

Canada seriously lags behind. In Canada there are 11 cities. These include Niagara Falls, Brampton, Guelph, Kingston, Trenton, Brantford, St. Albert, Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey and Whitehorse. There are pilot projects underway in the city of Toronto, New Market and Edmonton. Both New Market and Edmonton have extended their pilot projects to encompass the entire city.

Niagara Falls allows for 10 hens, Victoria allows for the number of hens consistent with household egg consumption (which for some families may be 12 hens).  I am requesting that Petawawa, ON. town council consider changing the by-laws to allow the keeping of up to 6 hens in residential zoned areas.  Our young family with 4 children believe this is a reasonable request as six hens would provide for us soundly.  This request is also contingent upon certain stipulations in order to protect both those partaking and not partaking in raising hens.

If you believe this is a good idea and wish to support this endeavour please sign this petition and share with others who may be interested.  If you want to learn more, you can ask to join Petawawa Backyard Chickens on Facebook. Thank you!