Trustees Consider Ban on Roosters But Decide Not to Pick On Chickens

At a work session on February 1, the Scarsdale Village trustees discussed a draft of a new law, to address concerns about noisy roosters, peafowl and chickens. After discussion, the trustees decided to ban only roosters and peafowl for now while they gather more information from residents who keep chickens, or hens, as pets or for their eggs.

In order to give residents who now have roosters a chance to find them a new home, the draft of the law gave people 30 days to relocate them.

Chickens however proved to be another matter. Trustee Arest said, “Do we know how many people have chickens? Because we don’t know who has them I am concerned about not hearing from those people.”

Trustee Brew agreed. “If people have chickens and they are outlawed, it could be seen as rather harsh. I would feel better if they had a little more time.”

Trustee Ahuja concurred. He said, “I am wholly in agreement with Justin – it seems easy but none of this stuff is ever easy.”

Trustee Lewis was ready to move forward with the code change. He said, “I love animals and have had many kinds of pets. But I think the staff has done the work and I am inclined to go with this and lengthen the grace period to a few months so that we can focus on our budget.”

Rob Cole confirmed that the Village has no data on how many people would be affected. He said, “We don’t know how many people have chickens. But in most places where it’s legal to have chickens, there are laws regulating their presence.” He later said, “For the chickens we have only had complaints about one location. I am not sure how many are out there. My recommendation is to prohibit them for now and allow sufficient time for people to transition them. We can revisit this if we hear that people want to keep chickens and then we can develop an urban chicken law.”

Calling into the meeting resident Michelle Sterling said, “I understand why we need to ban roosters. But I know quite a few people who keep hens in Scarsdale. They don’t make noise. They keep them for the eggs – and for an experience for their children. They are like pets – it might not be easy to get rid of them – and take away the opportunity to harvest the eggs.”

After considerable discussion, the trustees agreed to ban only roosters and peafowl and to give people more time to relocate the roosters. They also asked staff to find how many people have chickens and to determine the need for an urban chicken law. The new code change will be subject to a public hearing and the Village will do outreach to attempt to notify anyone who might be affected.