FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio — People in Fairview Park are in a squabble about whether chickens should be allowed to become the residents' newest pets.
The controversy started two years ago during COVID-19 when Cassie Bancroft proposed the idea of allowing residents in the Fairview Park community to own chickens after seeing the price increase on eggs.
Currently, owning chickens in Fairview Park is illegal, but some residents believe city council should change that rule.
Bancroft said once she found out it was illegal, she sent a letter to city council to find out how to get the law changed. After she had her first child, her focus shifted to her family and the proposal sat in committee for two years. Now that she has gathered community support, Bancroft says she is ready to present her case to city council as to why having chickens is important.
“When I buy something, I want to know that it's ethically sourced, I want to know that it has the best nutrition available for my family, and so I think that's important. I think people forget that factory farming is not the most ethical thing; the birds aren't treated well, and you lose a lot of nutrition in the eggs,” said Bancroft.
Many residents argue that chickens are a resourceful and cheaper alternative.
“Chickens also are natural pest control. So rather than using pesticides in your garden, chickens will eat ticks and slugs, nasty pests that people treat and put chemicals onto their vegetables to avoid having,” said Bancroft.
Matt Spaeth is a father of eight and loves growing his own vegetables and making his own bread.
“We never really had a lot as kids, so everything was kind of improvised, and everything is getting expensive. I’ve started resorting back to my roots and figuring out how to make do with a large family," said Spaeth.
While some residents are excited to vote yes for chickens, others have shared concerns about the possible smell from untamed coops, loud noises and chickens wandering off into the street.
“There are communities around that have done things to make sure that their chicken owners are responsible. So, they require them to take a class and provide proof that they've taken this class. I think that would kind of weed out some of those people that are less responsible owners,” said Bancroft.
In addition to taking a required class, Bancroft thinks that residents who have proven not to follow the rules will have their ability to own chickens taken away.
“I think that some people don't fully understand it,they just they hear the negative stigmas about it from other people. They think that people are going to have a whole hatchery of 400 chickens in the house. They can set some stipulations as to how many you can have and find the middle ground,” said Spaeth.
Currently, Lakewood and Cleveland allow residents to have five to six chickens in their backyards, which Bancroft is asking city council for Monday, March 4.
She said she believes it will be an uphill battle but is confident she and others have put together a great presentation.
“We're going to have a few presenters come in and just show pieces of our presentation, talk about why we think it's important to have chickens in the city. How we plan on mitigating some people's concerns about various factors of having hens in the city,” said Bancroft.
