San Juan Bautista
– It has been more than six months since the San Juan Bautista
City Council passed an ordinance forbidding the feeding of feral
chickens, and now the only flightless fowl consistently seen along
Third Street in the Mission City are the colorful ceramic variety
in antique store windows.
San Juan Bautista – It has been more than six months since the San Juan Bautista City Council passed an ordinance forbidding the feeding of feral chickens, and now the only flightless fowl consistently seen along Third Street in the Mission City are the colorful ceramic variety in antique store windows.
“I don’t see any more chickens,” said Jesus Zavala, owner of JJ’s Homemade Burgers on Third Street. “I hear a couple in the morning.”
The ordinance enforces existing San Juan municipal code. The municipal code mandates that the first infraction of chicken feeding would constitute a fine of $50, and a second violation within a year would cost $100, with an additional fine of $500 for every infraction thereafter. The Great Poultry Debate had been raging years before the city ordinance was passed March 21 on a 3-2 vote by city council members.
However, the ordinance may have no real bite. San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill said his officers would not, and have not, enforced the code.
“We don’t have anything to do with that,” Hill said. “I’ve given my staff direct orders not to get involved.”
City Council Member Chuck Geiger, who voted against the ordinance, previously told the Free Lance the only way the city can issue citations is to call the city code enforcement officer, who is paid $80 an hour, much more than the $50 ticket for a first offense. Geiger said no citations have been issued.
However, citations may not be necessary. Geiger said the purpose of the ordinance was to prevent the mass feeding of the chickens by San Juan residents.
“People come in from out of town and feed them,” Geiger said. “But that’s not a problem.”
Geiger said mass feeding encourages the chickens to centralize and propagate. The hens roost in the trees around Third Street and the roosters begin crowing and cawing in the early morning, waking residents. San Juan City Manager Janice McClintock said the ordinance has helped keep the chicken population down.
“I think it was because the clutches we had in respects to the chicks are smaller,” McClintock said.
McClintock and Geiger said the chicken-catching brigade, led by residents Dan Vermilyer and Grace Nutter, helped thin out the chicken population in the spring, before and after the ordinance was adopted. The group took chickens to rural residents and farmers. Geiger even encourages out-of-town visitors to help themselves to a chicken as long as they are not taking it home to cook.
Keeping chickens off Third Street has relieved the stress of some business owners. Zavala said chickens would come into his restaurant and cause problems. He said Jardines experienced similar chicken issues.
“It’s annoying because when you’re going to eat it’s not healthy,” Zavala said of the chickens entering restaurants.
Pat Norton, owner of Patty’s Antiques on Third Street, said the town was inundated with black chickens between Christmas 2005 and New Year’s. People began to complain and the city decided an ordinance would help matters.
“(The new chickens) didn’t know the chicken etiquette, I guess, because they were coming in the store,” Norton said.
But not everyone sees the chickens as a problem. Pat Grout, visiting from England, said the chickens are lovely. She said the ones she saw looked as if they were expecting to be fed.
“They shouldn’t complain about that,” Grout said. “All you have to do is go, ‘Shoo.'”
But Zavala said it is not that easy.
“A lot of tourists like it, but they don’t have to live with it,” Zavala said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335, or at mv*********@fr***********.com.
