Fountain Street resident Mark Morse, 40, might have to give up his children's six pet chickens if the city cracks down on a no-fowl policy.
Morse and his two children, Sydney, 8, and Benji, 5, have raised six chickens in their handmade backyard coop. They arrived as chicks in February.
His pets recently caught the attention of the city's health and inspection services after one of his chickens was spotted loose in his neighborhood.
According to city ordinances, the chickens are not allowed in his residential district nor within 150 feet of his home unless he is granted a city permit.
Morse received a letter from city compliance inspector Thomas Mullen on Aug. 9 stating that he had inspected Morse's property after receiving a complaint from the animal control officer that chickens had been spotted out on Fountain Street.
The letter stipulated that Morse remove the chickens from his property before an Aug. 16 inspection, but as of press time, inspectors had not returned.
Morse said that he's never run afoul of the city in the past, but said he's drawing the line over his children's pets.
"The kids really like them," he said. "I don't want to be defiant."
While the chickens are kept in their two-story coop during the day, they are let out in the afternoons and evenings to roam the backyard with his children, Morse said. Since they've always been handled, rarely do they cluck aloud as Sydney and Benji chase them through the backyard or cradle them in their arms cooing their names, including Chicken Nugget and Ostrich. The kids have taken the chickens to class at Hill View Montessori school and bathe them frequently in their plastic winter sleds, which are the ideal depth and size for a chicken, he said.
Now, the chickens have begun to lay eggs, which Morse and his kids share with neighbors.
While chickens are an unusual pet for a city dweller, Morse said he was looking something that didn't require the attention and time of a dog — he's a single father — but gave his kids a more unique experience than something like an aquarium.
"I wanted the kids to have something they could grow up with," he said. "I thought it would be good for the kids."
Bonnie Dufresne, of the city's Health and Inspection Services, however, said the city is following the letter of the law. She said that backyard chicken raisers have become increasingly common in past few years since the start of the recession. She noted that no inspector personally investigates a given home for signs of contraband animals unless there are complaints.
"We have at least two to three complaints a month," she said.
She said Morse can appeal for a waiver to the Board of Health and the Zoning Board.
Dufresne said the re-inspection date is not set in stone.
"We try to work with owners," she said. "We always try to give them a little extra time."
Morse said that while the city could offer him a permit, the fact it could be rescinded at any time worries him.
Furthermore, the permit application requires him to submit an engineering plan of how he'll keep chickens. He estimates that could cost him anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000.
Other, more common, pets are banned from the residential zones of the city, include rabbits, any kind of reptiles, and hamsters.
Morses's neighbor Tina Rimal said she's never had any complaints about the chickens.
"I don't think anybody has any problems," she said. " They're just trying to love them. I could understand if somebody didn't take care of them."
Similarly, neighbor Logan Seale said he's never had an issue with the chickens.
"We don't ever see them," he said.
