Creating a Fuss

I never thought I would be an activist and yet, here I am. No more armchair ranting. It's time for public action.

The city of Kamloops will not allow me, or anyone else with property less than an acre, to have chickens for the purpose of collecting and eating their nutritious eggs. 

We the "Urban Hens Movement", organized by TRU student Bonnie Klohn, packed out a meeting room before Mayor Peter Millobar and City Council on December 9th, 2008 to propose our experimental pilot project. 

This was the proposed project:

"About 40 families will go through a series of courses about hen husbandry, public safety, disease prevention and coup building during the winter. In March 2009 each family will acquire 3 hens and keep them for 6 months. The aim is to create a group of educated, responsible hen owners in Kamloops and to improve food security/sustainability within the city. It will help to get people thinking more about where their food comes from and what is in it. After the pilot an evaluation will be done and a by-law proposal will be put forth to the city that is tailored specifically to Kamloops needs, keeping in mind what worked and what did not in the pilot."

Council proposed to amend the project and asked By-law council to look it over and make recommendations. It was not a defeat.....yet.

The current situation is as such; According to sources within the city, there is very little support from upper management (Including the Mayor, who has already said he is against it). They are also recommending the number of pilot families be reduced to 20. The Council makes their final vote on January 27th, 2009. There is little time left to rally support, but it must be done. Council must be made to understand that many people are in support of this and we will not go away quietly! 

If you live and the city of Kamloops and support eating local and believe we should have the freedom to use our own land for our own food production, please take a few minutes and write an email to our Mayor and council at info@kamloops.ca 

You can also help by writing to our local news papers at letters@kamloopsnews.ca and editor@kamloopsthisweek.com