Save our girls from certain death!
Donation protected
Help! Our subdivision Trustees are sueing us to force us to "dispose" of our pet chickens! Please help us fund our defense and keep our girls safe!
Meet Kate, Elizabeth, Fergie, and Di and their canine friend Reeces. We live in the backyard of our favorite peeps Bonnie and Stanley.
Life is grand in our backyard palace, we free range everyday but never, ever leave our yard. We love treats and come running for any kind of table scraps especially cottage cheese and yogurt (bluebery please) We are clean and well behaved, in fact, our neighbors say our gentle clucking is quite soothing.
Well, life was great until our subdivision trustees decided to sue us claiming our chickens are not pets and therefore not exempt from the subidvision rules regarding Livestock and poultry.
Let me start from the beginning. Last year we decided to start a backyard flock of pet chickens. We did our homework: made sure all our neighbors approved, everybody was cool with it. We checked the rules: the county says you can have chickens as long as you have no roosters and our subdivision rules say:
Livestock and Poultry: No animals livestock or poultry shall be raised, bred or kept on any lot, EXCEPT, THAT, household pets, in limited numbers may be kept provided they are not maintained for any commercial purpose.
Our girls would be pets and we were not planning to sell eggs and certainly not going to butcher so it looked like we were clear for takeoff!
We did our research choosing from breeds that make good pets and did well in small spaces like backyards. We got our babies when they were just a few days old and raised them in the livingroom. handling them everyday. First in a puppy cage then expanding to a washer/dryer box as they grew. At 8 weeks they moved to the garage and at 12 weeks as the weather warmed moved into the backyard.
The girls have been living in the Royal coop for a year now. We call it the Royal Coop because as we built it, it kept getting "add-ons" first plexiglass hinged windows, then a linoleum floor, finally a video monitoring system, and solar powered ventalation system. So the girls were aptly named after the ladies of the royal family.
The girls are amazing, each has her own personality, while they are all freindly and love treats, Elizabeth will crawl in my lap for a good scratch and stay as long as I keep scratching. They will all line up at the back door begging for treats. They come in the kitchen and know where the fridge is (of course! that is where the cottage cheese is) but only fergie will stick around after treat the rest don't like the slippery kitchen floor.
Anyway we were doing fine until the trustees sent us a not so nice letter telling us we had to get rid of our chickens. We tried to explain that they were pets but they were having none of it.
Our next step was to talk to more people in the neighborhood. We talked to 100 homeowners 80 were willing to sign a petition agreeing with our interpretation of the indentures and our chickens "status" as pets. Still the trustees insist the petition doesn't matter and that our chickens are not pets.
So here we are, they are sueing us. Unless they decide to drop the case, which I don't expect, we can expect our attorney fees and court costs to exceed $5,000.
Please help us raise the money to defend ourselves and save our girls! Anything you can spare will help. If you can't help financially we understand, but everyone can help by sharing our story. Please like our story and pass it on!
Thank-you so much for your support! It means so much to us to be able to see this through and save our girls!
Check back often, we'll do our best to keep this site updated as the case progresses.
Note: Any funds raised in excess of those needed for our defense will go to educational programs to promote backyard flocks and sustainable living.
Meet Kate, Elizabeth, Fergie, and Di and their canine friend Reeces. We live in the backyard of our favorite peeps Bonnie and Stanley. Life is grand in our backyard palace, we free range everyday but never, ever leave our yard. We love treats and come running for any kind of table scraps especially cottage cheese and yogurt (bluebery please) We are clean and well behaved, in fact, our neighbors say our gentle clucking is quite soothing.
Well, life was great until our subdivision trustees decided to sue us claiming our chickens are not pets and therefore not exempt from the subidvision rules regarding Livestock and poultry.
Let me start from the beginning. Last year we decided to start a backyard flock of pet chickens. We did our homework: made sure all our neighbors approved, everybody was cool with it. We checked the rules: the county says you can have chickens as long as you have no roosters and our subdivision rules say:
Livestock and Poultry: No animals livestock or poultry shall be raised, bred or kept on any lot, EXCEPT, THAT, household pets, in limited numbers may be kept provided they are not maintained for any commercial purpose.
Our girls would be pets and we were not planning to sell eggs and certainly not going to butcher so it looked like we were clear for takeoff!
We did our research choosing from breeds that make good pets and did well in small spaces like backyards. We got our babies when they were just a few days old and raised them in the livingroom. handling them everyday. First in a puppy cage then expanding to a washer/dryer box as they grew. At 8 weeks they moved to the garage and at 12 weeks as the weather warmed moved into the backyard.The girls have been living in the Royal coop for a year now. We call it the Royal Coop because as we built it, it kept getting "add-ons" first plexiglass hinged windows, then a linoleum floor, finally a video monitoring system, and solar powered ventalation system. So the girls were aptly named after the ladies of the royal family.
The girls are amazing, each has her own personality, while they are all freindly and love treats, Elizabeth will crawl in my lap for a good scratch and stay as long as I keep scratching. They will all line up at the back door begging for treats. They come in the kitchen and know where the fridge is (of course! that is where the cottage cheese is) but only fergie will stick around after treat the rest don't like the slippery kitchen floor.
Anyway we were doing fine until the trustees sent us a not so nice letter telling us we had to get rid of our chickens. We tried to explain that they were pets but they were having none of it.
Our next step was to talk to more people in the neighborhood. We talked to 100 homeowners 80 were willing to sign a petition agreeing with our interpretation of the indentures and our chickens "status" as pets. Still the trustees insist the petition doesn't matter and that our chickens are not pets.
So here we are, they are sueing us. Unless they decide to drop the case, which I don't expect, we can expect our attorney fees and court costs to exceed $5,000.
Please help us raise the money to defend ourselves and save our girls! Anything you can spare will help. If you can't help financially we understand, but everyone can help by sharing our story. Please like our story and pass it on!
Thank-you so much for your support! It means so much to us to be able to see this through and save our girls!
Check back often, we'll do our best to keep this site updated as the case progresses.
Note: Any funds raised in excess of those needed for our defense will go to educational programs to promote backyard flocks and sustainable living.
Organizer
Stanley Wagner
Organizer
Fenton, MO
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