Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Semi-Libertarian Code Enforcers

I went today to speak with the code enforcement officer about our contraband chickens. As I expected he said someone reported the neighborhood for various violations (most likely the school board) and he had to come through and harass everyone. "You are not the major concern in that neighborhood" is what he said. When he came to our house and found the weeds a little untrimmed and a few piles of lumber that are considered nuisances he wrote us up for them. Had we kept the birds in the back yard he would not have gigged us for them. But because they were up front where there's "no reasonable expectation of privacy" he had to do something.

"I have better things to do than get warrants to search your backyard for chickens. I am not going to bother you about what you are doing in the privacy of your backyard. So ::lowering his voice:: if you want to get a few hens and keep them in the backyard I'm not going to bother you, just don't get any noisy roosters. This conversation never happened."

We will keep one rooster, and some hens. In the backyard of course... :>)