Advertisement
Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!
Food & Drink

A Torontonian’s fight to keep chickens in her backyard inspires hen-friendly laws (just not in Toronto)

By Robert Furtado
Copy link
Backyard chicken
Backyard chicken

Since we first reported the story of Toronto Chicken, a local renegade who illegally keeps backyard hens, her struggle has galvanized pro-pullet movements across the country. Her notoriety has made it as far as Washington, D.C., where The Atlantic ran a Web piece about how fowl keepers in Vancouver and Waterloo have used petitions, public education programs and blogging power to persuade city councils to legislate hen-friendly laws. These are people fuelled most by what Toronto Chicken calls the “broader issues,” like rising food prices, E. coli scares, the local food movement and “nutritionism”—Michael Pollan’s term describing humans’ growing obsession with all that’s nutritious (or not) in their food.

If backyard hens were legalized in Toronto, the city would still have to regulate most aspects of the practice: prohibiting roosters, capping the chicken count and limiting the size of enclosures. But it will be a while yet before a coop section is unveiled at Home Depot. One of the primary complaints about inner-city chickens is the clucking: the birds could drive residents of densely populated areas mad. And if there’s one lesson to be taken from the city’s response to noise complaints along Queen West and Ossington, it’s that city council has no wrath like that of grumpy residents who aren’t getting enough sleep.

Contraband Chickens Invade Canada [The Atlantic]

NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY

Sign up for Table Talk, our free newsletter with essential food and drink stories.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
You may unsubscribe at any time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The Latest

Neighbourhood Crawl: What National Ballet principal dancer Guillaume Côté loves about Leslieville
City

Neighbourhood Crawl: What National Ballet principal dancer Guillaume Côté loves about Leslieville

Inside the Latest Issue

The February issue of Toronto Life features Scottie Barnes, the new face of the Raptors—and the team’s best chance of salvation. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.