The woman fighting for local homeowners’ right to keep live fowl on their property—known only as Toronto Chicken—is gaining support on city council. A plan is in the works to make backyard chickens legal, just like they are in other cities, and city councillor Joe Mihevc is on board. This is not a huge news story, but try telling that to the Toronto Sun, which put it on the front page and used the story as an excuse to run a series of chicken-related puns. To save readers time, we’ve compiled them here, from the egg-regious to the fowl.
In addition to the birdbrained headline “What the cluck?” and constantly calling the city Hogtown instead of Toronto (farm animals—we get it), we detected the following:
• “Backyard chickens: fair or fowl?” • “Hatching plans to make chickens legal in the city” • “Toronto chicken owner drumming up support to allow birds in city” • “One woman, three years into flouting Toronto’s anti-chicken bylaw, wishes that was the biggest issue on her plate when it comes to the banned backyard birds” • “[She] told the Sun she hopes councillors won’t stay chicken” • “About five Canadian communities have hatched plans to allow chickens” • “Not all councils think urban chickens are all they’re cracked up to be” • “Toronto Animal Services manager Eletta Purdy said backyard chickens ruffle feathers” • “Other cities seem to be flocking to the idea” • “The fact Toronto has yet to lift the ban sticks in the woman’s craw”
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