This is our response to the Greeley city code division. We have also contacted our representative in our ward.

Greeley City Code Enforcement

1000 10th Street

Greeley, CO 80631

This letter is in response to a courtesy warning of a city code violation we received on 8/14/2009 at our property  in Greeley.  We believe there is an error in the violation and that we are not out of compliance. The warning says that we need to reduce our number of chickens from four to one because of a code under land use for commercial livestock. It states the land size that we need to raise “chickens, broiler & layer; rabbits” (18.58.030). However, these chickens are not used for commercial purposes and we do not have an agricultural business or farm of any sort. These chickens, our girls, are simply our pets, and are not kept for “economic (business) reasons”.

 When we looked online for any restrictions on keeping pet chickens, we did not find any. In fact, we found that our girls would fall under pets as domesticated birds:

 7.04.097 Domesticated animal. Domesticated animal means a pet or companion animal that is kept by humans for companionship, amusement or for the beauty of its appearance or utterances, rather than for economic reasons. A domesticated animal may include, but is not limited to, dogs, cats, fish, parrots, doves, cockatiels, budgies, cockatoos, finches, macaws, any other domesticated birds (except wild birds), nonpoisonous snakes under six (6) feet in length, rodents (including hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, gerbils, chinchillas, degus, flying squirrels and rats), sugar gliders, rabbits, ferrets and pot-bellied pigs. (Ord. 8, 2006 §1).

 Rabbits (who are also listed under the 18.58.030 code as only allowing one per 1/10 acre), pigs (also under 18.58.030) and other animals listed above could be raised for either economic purposes or for pet purposes but are not restricted in number if they are pets. In our case, our girls, Henrietta, Salt, Football and Greenfoot, are raised as pets. There is no agricultural business involved and we are not breaking any animal code by responsibly raising them as such.

 Thank you for your time.

 Sincerely,

 Cassie and Britton Kauffman