City approves $500 to take 100 fowl off the streets
Having determined that the feral chicken population in the city
has become a nuisance, the city of San Juan Bautista this week
contracted with J
&
amp; D Critter Round Up to remove up to 100 fowl from the
streets of the Mission City for $500.
”
Personally, I have no problem with the chickens in the state
park or the downtown area,
”
said Vice Mayor Jolene Cosio.
”
They don’t seem to congregate in those areas and create a
problem. Where they’re creating a problem is in the residential
areas. The people who live here have a right to not have chickens
congregate in their yard.
”
City approves $500 to take 100 fowl off the streets
Having determined that the feral chicken population in the city has become a nuisance, the city of San Juan Bautista this week contracted with J & D Critter Round Up to remove up to 100 fowl from the streets of the Mission City for $500.
“Personally, I have no problem with the chickens in the state park or the downtown area,” said Vice Mayor Jolene Cosio. “They don’t seem to congregate in those areas and create a problem. Where they’re creating a problem is in the residential areas. The people who live here have a right to not have chickens congregate in their yard.”
Feral chickens, primarily roosters, “are becoming a public nuisance due to noise and fecal deposits,” the city noted in its “agreement for chicken pick up services” with the Paicines-based critter round-up business. The contract calls for the company to remove no more than 100 chickens from the city and “make reasonable efforts to place the removed chickens into a suitable environment.”
“He’s supposed to try to find homes for them,” said Cosio. “We’ll assist him with any information we have about ranches willing to take them.”
Asked what will happen if homes aren’t found for the formerly feral fowl, Cosio said, “the same thing that happens when you turn your pet into the animal shelter. I don’t think he’s going to keep them.”
Mayor Andy Moore said he has been in touch with people who are interested in adopting some of the birds, though he acknowledged “there’s no guarantee that we’ll find homes for all of them.”
J & D Critter Round Up will provide holding cages for the birds to be kept in the city’s corporation yard for no more than 24 hours.
The goal of the chicken removal plan is to focus on residential areas and private property, not the Mission Plaza or downtown business district, Moore said.
The street chicken roundup is expected to begin around July 1, when San Juan will bring its public works operations in-house with the hiring of two employees. Those workers will be responsible for the safe housing of the birds until the critter company retrieves them within 24 hours of being notified.
“We’ve made it clear that the public works guys will have to get information from the Hollister Animal Shelter about caring for these animals (in cages) for 24 hours because they’ll be responsible for them, with food and water,” Cosio said.
Volunteers and residents will gather the hens and roosters and bring them to the city yard, where they will be kept in cages until Jim Bohannan of J & D Critter Round Up picks them up. Bohannan could not be reached for comment prior to press time this week.
The contract is set to expire upon the company’s removal of the 100th chicken from the city, though the agreement does stipulate that it can be extended by agreement of both parties. If the agreement is terminated before the 100th chicken is removed from the city, J & D will receive $5 per chicken that it removed.
“This is more or less a trial run,” Cosio said. “People dump chickens in San Juan regularly. We just haven’t been able to catch anyone doing it. If more chickens are dumped, we may have to go back to him again.”
Moore said he wants to respond to residents who complain about the birds keeping them up at night in residential areas of town.
“They’ve asked me personally if I can help them out,” he said as a rooster crowed in the background. “Something should be done. We’re trying to address it.”
“Probably 90 percent of the calls and e-mails I’ve received are from residences,” he said, adding that he is even willing to unlock the city yard after hours to allow people to drop off chickens in the holding pens.
