San Juan might rethink the flock of famed street birds
With some San Juan Bautista residents crowing over what they
call an unchecked increase in the amount of street chickens roaming
the Mission City, officials are considering paying a Paicines
critter wrangler $5 per bird to thin the flocks.
The San Juan City Council was scheduled to address the issue at
this week’s meeting, but decided to delay the discussion until the
June 21 meeting.
While the debate over whether the feral hens and roosters should
roam free has ruffled the feathers of some locals, others say the
wandering birds are an attraction that benefits the city’s
tourist-based economy.
San Juan might rethink the flock of famed street birds
With some San Juan Bautista residents crowing over what they call an unchecked increase in the amount of street chickens roaming the Mission City, officials are considering paying a Paicines critter wrangler $5 per bird to thin the flocks.
The San Juan City Council was scheduled to address the issue at this week’s meeting, but decided to delay the discussion until the June 21 meeting.
While the debate over whether the feral hens and roosters should roam free has ruffled the feathers of some locals, others say the wandering birds are an attraction that benefits the city’s tourist-based economy.
“It’s not a matter of liking or not liking them – it’s a health issue and a nuisance,” said Richard Ponce, who has lived in San Juan for more than 70 years. “They’re all over our restaurants where we have outside seating. It’s a noise issue, too. They crow at all hours of the night and a lot of people have a heck of a time trying to sleep.”
Ponce said he spends a lot of time in the garden of his home on Fourth Street, where he says “a majority of the chickens hang out.”
“They don’t hang out on the main drag that much because there’s not a lot of habitat for them,” he said. “They hang out in neighborhoods where they can hide in bushes and dig around. A lot of us who take care of our yards have a hell of a time with them. They dig things up, scratch and pull up plants.”
He also said the birds can be a traffic hazard, with drivers slowing down when a chicken crosses the road.
City Clerk Linda McIntyre, who has lived on Sixth Street in San Juan for 11 years and works as the Moss Landing harbor master, said she doesn’t “understand what all the fuss is about.”
“I like the chickens,” she said. “I find them to be quite charming. If they are removed, I want to make sure it is done humanely. People don’t like the roosters crowing, but they don’t disturb my sleep at all. I’m sorry for the people who are disturbed by them, but I hope they can work out a solution where roosters and hens will be allowed to remain in the city.
“If they want to thin the herd, that’s fine. I was hoping they don’t do an all-out slaughter.”
San Juan Mayor Andy Moore said there are no plans to remove all of the chickens from the city. He does, however, believe the city needs to respond to residents’ complaints about the birds.
“It’s a love-hate relationship,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s out to eliminate the birds. They’ve just gotten to a place where the city needs to respond to residents.”
Moore said of the street chickens, “personally they don’t bother me,” though he said his constituents deserve attention if they have complaints that the city can address.
“We’re not going to set traps all over town,” he said. “We’ll try to respond to do the best we can and take care of the problem. It’s either that or not do anything. The rumor that had gotten out that we’d get rid of all of them was blown way out of proportion. The tourists love them but the city needs to respond to calls for service.”
Moore contacted Jim Bohanan of J&D Critter Round Up, a Paicines business that specializes in deterring and trapping “nuisance animals” such as raccoons, skunks, rats, wild pigs and coyotes, among others.
“He’s licensed and he has the proper insurance,” Moore said of Bohanan, who quoted Moore a figure of $5 for each bird. “He’d then try to find good homes for them.”
Bohanan could not be reached for comment prior to press time.
Margot Tankersley, owner of Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor at 211 Third St. in downtown San Juan, noted that many tourists find the roaming street chickens a quirky and endearing aspect to their visit.
She likes the chickens so much, in fact, that she helped the city’s Chamber of Commerce organize the San Juan Bautista Chicken Festival and Parade, which has been held for the past four years.
Though the event scaled back last year, previous years’ events included crowing contests, a chicken barbecue – using store-bought fowl – and the crowning of a chicken queen.
“People around here love them or hate them,” said Tankersley, who lives in Hollister. “I know they make a mess, but people come from Monterey and Fresno and even from other countries to see the chickens roaming San Juan.”
As for the crowing and clucking sounds the birds make, Tankersley said “it’s kind of cool. There could be worse noises.”
Longtime resident Ponce said he’s “taking a lot of heat” for his desire to have all of the feral birds removed from town.
“We have a lot of chickens here; hundreds of them,” he said. “Just thinning them out is just creating a job for somebody. They multiply like rabbits. They’re not part of San Juan. It’s about our buildings and the mission and the history, not the chickens.”
In 2006, San Juan Bautista gained the attention of the national media when it passed an ordinance prohibiting the feeding of the town’s feral chickens. The Los Angeles Times wrote a front-page story about the issue and city officials received calls from CNN and National Public Radio.
In the five years since, no citations have been written for people feeding the birds, as the city has no police force and the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office has a standing policy not to enforce the ordinance.
Ponce, for one, said the city should enforce the rules it has in place.
“There are some people who feed them and we have an ordinance against that,” he said. “The ordinance also prohibits owning more than four chickens in town, that they have to be caged, that you can’t own roosters. We have all the tools to take care of the problem; it’s just that San Juan has issues taking care of problems. There is no reason to let those chickens put us in a position of liability” if someone were to get sick from the waste the birds leave behind.
