B.G. proposal riles animal lovers

Toree Hiebert, co-founder of the Urban Farm School in Vancouver, supports raising chickens because of the quality and potential cost savings. Hiebert spoke in favor of urban farming at Battle Ground’s City Council meeting Monday night. (Photos by N. Scott Trimble/The Columbian)

One of Toree Hiebert’s chickens at her Vancouver home.

Toree Hiebert’s chickens at her Vancouver home.

Over the summer, a resident complained to Lisa Walters that she couldn’t enjoy her backyard because her neighbor’s chickens stank to high heaven.

“I went to her house, and there were 50 chickens on a 5,000-square-foot lot, and it smelled beyond belief,” the Battle Ground councilwoman said.

And so, Walters proposed an ordinance banning large animals in the city of Battle Ground, sending many into a tizzy. It wasn’t a radical ordinance, and would have allowed properly maintained chickens, but it struck a nerve among lovers of farmland.

On Monday night, several of those people showed up, testifying that they had raised their children on goats’ milk and their chickens’ eggs. Bob McNeal worried about his pure-bred lambing enterprise, which wouldn’t have been affected because his farm would have been grandfathered if his land had been annexed by the city.

Walters has lived in Battle Ground for some time, but she said Monday that she hails originally from Portland. And Portland, many Battle Ground residents said, was exactly what they didn’t want to resemble.

“This is not about livestock,” said Battle Ground resident Samantha Snider. “This was a complaint pushed forward to make Battle Ground into a miniature Portland. To encourage development at a faster rate.”

Others echoed the not-like-Portland theme. They are not Portland; they’re Battle Ground, they said. If they wanted to live in Portland (where, by the way, chickens and pygmy goats are allowed), they would make the move.

Urban farming advocates were also present, encouraging a marriage of the rural-urban divide. Tricia Mortell of the Clark County Food System Council said urban folks in Battle Ground stand to learn from farmer types, and vice versa.

“Our focus is maintaining access to healthy food,” Mortell said. “Putting restrictions on livestock or gardening in the front yard diminishes access to healthy, local food.”

She said that chickens and miniature goats require minimal space and pointed out major cities like Seattle, Portland and New York, where farm-friendly regulations have been adopted.

Saving money is a factor, Mortell said, but so is quality and taste of food.

“It’s knowing where you food comes from,” she said.

Toree Hiebert, co-founder of the Urban Farm School in Vancouver, said that with the rising costs of food, people should be allowed to consider farming for themselves.

“People need to look at local food and food security,” Hiebert said. “Chickens are easy to keep, and they’re low-cost.”

Across the Northwest, animal policies vary. Vancouver code specifically notes that residents are allowed two miniature Vietnamese, Chinese or Oriental pot-bellied pigs no taller than 18 inches or heavier than 95 pounds. Up to three chickens are allowed in Seattle, and pygmy goats are allowed in Portland. In rural Ridgefield, however, chickens aren’t allowed within 100 feet of any residence.

(Livestock, by the way, is defined by Washington state law as any “horse, mule, burro, dairy or beef animal, llama, alpaca, goat, sheep, swine, rabbit or poultry.”)

As the Battle Ground City Council meeting concluded, Councilman Paul Zandamela asked whether Battle Ground had issues with large animals being kept in backyards. The answer was no. So if there was no controversy, he asked, why the ordinance?

“I was raised in Africa around lots of animals, and we learned how to sustain ourselves,” Zandamela said. “We need to educate people. The way it’s written now shouldn’t be acted on.”

Isolde Raftery: 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.