Dear Editor:
Regarding your Sept. 19 story, City Residents May Count Their Chickens:
As a person who lives in the District of North Vancouver, and who knows a little bit about chickens, I think the City of North Vancouver should adopt a contingency plan for aged chickens. The average chicken is most productive as an egg-layer during the time before its first molt. After this period, chickens lay eggs for four months before the next molt. At this point, egg production ceases. Normally, farmers sell their chickens to hobby farmers at a discount, after the first molt, and start over.
Here's my concern. If people adopt chickens for egg laying, and they can't kill them when they stop, what is going to happen? How will the city deal with unwanted chickens? The District of North Vancouver's animal shelter only takes in domestic animals from the district, and the city has no shelter at all.
It is bad enough that people release their rabbits to the wild when they are unwanted (talk to residents in Richmond, who have a predator/prey problem), but chickens? I live on a wildlife corridor and I'd hate to see any wildlife be killed because they are preying upon disposed "pets."
Further thought is needed.
Lisa Niven North Vancouver
