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An upcoming Letter to the Editor of the Herald-Independent from Heather Gates.
Dear Alderman Kugle,
I thank you for the concern for our city and lakes expressed in your letter last week. I would like to share my thoughts about those concerns.
In countering the Herald-Independent editorial supporting backyard chickens, you referred to the county ordinance prohibiting lawn fertilizer containing phosphorus as justification for not allowing backyard chickens. Your point was that if phosphorous applied to our lawns in chemical fertilizer is a threat to our lakes, then phosphorus in chicken waste would surely be a threat. I would agree, if chicken waste were applied to our lawns like fertilizer.
But backyard chicken poop isn’t applied to lawns like fertilizer. It is handled differently. While hens poop some while in their pen during the day, they poop mostly while roosting at night. Droppings left in coop bedding (straw, or the like) are scooped up and put in the compost bin by their keepers. In being added to the compost pile, chicken poop is mixed with bedding, leaves, kitchen scraps, and yard waste. Finished compost is a valuable organic material and is worked into garden beds, not spread on lawns like Scotts TurfBuilder where it could run off. Compost mixed into beds aerates and conditions the soil, feeding vegetables and plants.
The problems you envision might occur with large-scale poultry production where poorly managed waste lagoons could leak or waste is spread on crops. Five hens is a completely different scale -- no lagoons, no spraying, just composting. Chickens can actually have a positive benefit on water pollution, as they eat bugs and weeds, reducing use of chemical pesticides.
You also compared the quantities of dog waste to chicken waste. However, you compared only the solid portion of dog waste to that of both solid and liquid chicken waste. Chickens do not urinate; their waste includes both solid and liquid components. So to make a fair comparison you must include dog urine in your total output of waste. Since I find chicken waste isn’t a problem, I won’t debate the calculations you made from an apples-to-oranges comparison of waste quantity.
You rejected the phosphorus problems related to dog waste, using anecdotal evidence of your good behavior in picking up after your dog. I commend you for being responsible. But the public should be informed that dog waste is not only a valid and documented problem for phosphorus pollution, it is a valid and documented problem for its harmful bacteria and parasites (hookworms, roundworms, and tapeworms) that can infect humans.
According to the FDA, an average dog generates 3/4 of a pound of manure a day, or 274 pounds per year. Unlike chicken poop, dog waste cannot be composted because of the bacteria and parasites it contains, and is a major source of bacterial pollution in urban watersheds. Various studies show that 10 to 40% of owners don’t pick up after their dogs, leaving waste to runoff into streams and storm sewers. Some even toss the waste into the storm sewers.
In a 2003 Dane County survey, 10% of dog owners said they didn’t pick up after their dogs. If 10% admitted such, the figure is probably higher, but I’ll use that figure. With 37.2% of households owning dogs in 2006 (U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook) and the number of households in Monona being 3,768, that means at least 1,402 dogs reside in Monona. 1,402 dogs times 274 pounds of poop, equals 384,148 pounds per year in Monona. Multiply this by the 10% of owners that do not pick up the waste, and 38,414 pounds of dog waste are left on the ground in Monona. That’s 19.2 tons each year!
(Information about this problem is on page four of the UW-Extension’s “Rock River Reflections” publication, at www.rockrivercoalition.org/documents/RRCwinter2008fin.pdf, in “The Number Two Threat” at
www.wirenh.com/Outside/Outside_-_general/the_number_two_threat_200711072566.html,
and in the USA Today article “Dog Waste Poses Threat to Water” at www.usatoday.com/news/science/2002-06-07-dog-usat.htm. You can also find advice on proper disposal of pet waste in the handout “Pet Waste and Water Quality” at http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/GWQ006.pdf.)
Comparing dog and chicken waste is not a red herring, but shows we should not treat pet animals selectively. If you propose we not allow backyard chickens because of your hypothesis about phosphorus pollution from their waste, you certainly should propose we ban dogs for the very real and documented problems caused by phosphorus and other harmful substances in their waste. I don’t think anyone wants that. But emphasis should be placed where the problem lies -- on dog waste pollution -- and we should encourage more conscientious disposal by owners.
You wrote that an issue for you is chicken owners “that will not be responsible.” There likely will be a small percentage of people who are irresponsible chicken owners, just as there are irresponsible dog and cat owners. It is why we have laws and regulations. Why should we expect perfection from chicken owners without expecting it from all pet owners? I again propose we not treat pet animals selectively.
Another issue you stated for not supporting the ordinance was “because I have not heard from or talked with one person outside the council meeting that supports this ordinance.” Eleven people registered in favor of the backyard chicken ordinance at the council meeting. None registered in opposition. If citizens aren’t supposed to make our voices heard this way, if the city council meeting is not the proper place for those for and against to show our will, please tell us the way we are supposed to do it.
Though not scientific, a poll was conducted by the Herald-Independent on their website from February 19th through 25th. It asked “Would you mind if chickens were allowed in residential neighborhoods?” When I last looked on the 25th, the response was: “Yes,” they would mind -- 17%; “No,” they wouldn’t mind – 33%; and “No, and I might raise a few myself,” -- 50%.
Your priorities for Monona are admirable, but you dismissed the backyard chicken issue as unimportant. Doing so casts aside the concerns of many good citizens of Monona. Our fellow citizens are increasingly anxious about job security, dwindling bank accounts, rising transportation and healthcare costs, and myriad other issues related to our economy. The financial self-sufficiency created by having a consistent source of food protein from egg-laying hens in their backyards is important, not trivial. Many Monona households could supply ten to twenty percent of their daily nutritional needs by keeping chickens. They would save the expense of gasoline used to drive to the store. These are not small considerations, but ones I hope you and your fellow alderpersons will consider as you look further into the many positive benefits of backyard chickens.
Heather Gates
Monday, March 02, 2009
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Bam! Right on Heather! Thank god she does the work she does to educate the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI have to ask, just how many people do the small group opposed to keeping chickens think are going to raise chickens anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it would be a few more people than are keeping chickens currently in town, and over all a very small percentage of Monona residents. I'm also sure it's a small group of people compared to dog and cat owners. Between dogs, cats, gardens, and perfect lawns I think the amount of chickens pooping that we are talking about isn't much to consider in terms of runoff and the lakes. As Heather points out so well, most ends up composted and plant food. I paddle and camp, I'd never want to see our lakes ruined from a lack of concern over things that are allowed to flow into them.
Now that Gates has taken Alder Kugle to the wood shed, would she offer services on the council or as mayor.
ReplyDeleteSuch reserve and clarity is sorely needed in our public affairs.
Thank you Heather.
I don't disagree with keeping chickens, but I think the point about saving money is not correct. Think about it: chickens, chicken food, enclosure, heating that enclosure in the winter, vet bills, etc. I can't see this as actually being cheaper than buying eggs from the store. Just based on my gas bills, it seems that this would actually cost more. Justify it how you will, but don't justify it on cost. I'm guessing that doing this would cost at least $1000 in start up costs. That buys about 250 dozen eggs (3000). You're going to die of cholesterol related heart disease long before your backyard chicken venture has paid for itself. If I'm wrong here, someone break it down for me.
ReplyDeleteI have heard $500 as a startup cost. But anyway, let's leave that decision up to the individual to decide whether to raise a few chickens.
ReplyDeleteHeather here.
ReplyDeleteI feel it's crucial to point out that my words were not meant to be an attack (or a verbal woodshed switch).
Alderman Kugle is doing his job by being concerned about our lakes and I merely wanted to point out the fallacies in his arguments. It is important to ask from ourselves what we would want from others in a discussion of an issue. If we don’t want a divisive debate in which we are personally attacked, we shouldn’t personally attack. Framing the debate as “us versus them” only serves to make people did in their heels, shutting their eyes in the process. I am asking that our leaders open their eyes. That's all.
The title for this blog posting of “Chicken Volley” could be taken lightheartedly, I suppose (shuttlecocks and badminton do come to mind), but it seems more likely to fuel a more confrontational stance. Similarly, taking “Kugle to the woodshed” frames this in a divisive way. If it’s possible, Doug, could you please give this posting a title that’s a bit more constructive?
Yes, I think most of the council jumped to some very negative conclusions before truly having an understanding of backyard chickens.
Regarding the cost of keeping chickens: Please don’t make me get out my calculator! Let me just say that you need to compare the cost of backyard chicken eggs to the cost of organic eggs, which are quite expensive. Chicken feed can be supplemented with food scraps—no cost. Friends of mine built their chicken coop into their existing backyard shed, so I am sure others could come up with ways to build inexpensive coops. (Habitat ReStore comes to mind.)The cost of heating the coop is the cost of one 100 watt light bulb. (Run on solar or wind power to be sustainable, of course!)
Heather, I know you didn't mean to 'take Kugle to the verbal woodshed' - that's not your style.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the post was meant to refer to a tennis volley, as in "to hit or kick a ball before it reaches the ground, e.g. in tennis or soccer". I am title-challenged at the moment. I like to make them "pithy" or maybe "truthy", but I suppose I could change it to something prosaic and boring like "More Chicken Information" or something.
Heather here.
ReplyDeleteI understand your point about "Chicken Volley." "Chicken Response" came to mind, but then I pictured myself hiding under a table.