She’s No Chicken
Hats off to Kathy Rubalcaba in Vermont. She’ll be on Backyard Poulty with The Chicken Whisperer radio show this week. The scenario she finds herself in is not unique. It’s playing out in suburbia across america as people come to learn more about backyard poultry keeping and the benefits associated with it.
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BARRE TOWN – When it comes to Kathy Rubalcaba’s chickens, the eggs definitely came first. Then came her battles with the town, which the East Barre woman says she’s been fighting ever since the first few of them hatched about 18 months ago.
Rubalcaba’s struggles will continue tonight when the town’s selectboard considers the case of a chicken that reportedly flew the coop and a rooster that allegedly crowed at the crack of dawn.
Both birds belong to Rubalcaba, and both were the subject of separate complaints issued last month under the town’s “Nuisance Control Ordinance.”
They aren’t the first, according to Rubalcaba, who was in district court late last week for a status conference in another case of fowl play – this one involving a months-old complaint of another crowing rooster. She has also seen one chicken-related ticket issued by the town’s police department tossed out by a judge in the past year.
“This is silliness,” says Rubalcaba. “They’re just chickens!”
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Just chickens indeed. I’m looking forward to listening to the show.
This quote from Jules Dervaes sumes this phenomenon very well:
“Growing food is one of the most dangerous occupations on this earth because you are in danger of becoming free.”