By John Estridge
Audrey Ballard started to cry at the Liberty Town Council meeting Tuesday evening, September 8.
A Liberty resident, she had received notice she had to get rid of her chickens because they are not allowed within town limits, according to a town ordinance. They are considered farm animals.
Liberty Clerk/Treasurer Melissa Shepler said Ballard’s was one of three notices, which recently went out. A second one went to another residence concerning chickens while the third was sent to a residence about a pot-bellied pig.
A resident of Second Street, Ballard is near the edge of the town limits on the east side of town. She and her mother said the family recently suffered tragedies. And the chickens are pets, she said. They do not sell eggs or chickens, nothing is done commercially or for income. The family eats the eggs, but the chickens have served as therapy chickens.
Since the family did not profit from the commercial side of the chickens, Ballard hoped she would receive a variance on the chickens. They are pets and not farm animals for sale, she said.
However, town attorney Walt Chidester said they are still considered farm animals and even if the family considers them as pets, the town ordinance does not.
“The way this (ordinance) is written no kind of chicken can be allowed in town limits,” Chidester said.
LTC President Matthew Barnhizer said the ordinance considers chickens to be livestock, and livestock is not allowed within the town.
“This is very sad,” Ballard said while trying to hold back tears. “My kids will be highly disappointed.”
“They’ve lost so much this year,” Ballard’s mother said. “That’s why they are therapy chickens because they hatched them from little eggs.”
Barnhizer said he understood the family has faced hardships, but the ordinance is for the entire community.
Ballard asked how long she had before the family has to find another home for the chickens.
Usually, people are given two weeks after the notice is sent out, but council member Keith Bias made a motion to give the family until October 31, to find another home for the chickens. It was passed unanimously.