Our town ordinances are currently set up in such a way that gives officials the ability to ban animals that they (or other town residents) feel are nuisances. These animals include rabbits, all chickens, ducks or any other animals “not kept customarily as family pets”. Not only is this ordinance contradictory to other rules found in the same document, it gives other residents control over the definition of a "nuisance". 

This ordinance needs to be explored further and changed to meet the needs of today’s residents. Near by comminities are adapting to allow these animals with necessary restrictions and rules to preserve home values. This town is established as a farming community and needs to allow its residents to be as such.

I started this petition because...
My husband and I have been Lowell residents our entire lives and have put down roots here with our small family. We are environmentally cautious and interested in self-sustainability as well as lowering the support of large animal product manafactures. Although we live within town limits, we hoped to have a small chicken coop to raise and harvest our own eggs. We took all necessary steps to ensure as little disruption to our neighboring homes as possible. We installed a 6 foot privacy fence, bought a small coop and all necessary cleaning tools and accessories and decided to add only two hens and forgo any roosters. Still, inspite of our efforts, a neighbor decided our small birds were a nuisance and the town ordered them to be removed or face fines. These small animals do no harm to anyone around them, bring our children and family more happiness and joy than you could ever imagine and help our families ecological footprint by giving us a way to cultivate our own food. This ordnance is dated and reaches too far when used in this way. We are a farming community and a small family just looking to raise our children to be understanding, hard working and aware. Please help us keep this small control over our land by changing this ordnance to allow these pets within reason.