'It's devastating': Nanaimo farmer ordered to get rid of family chickens

Posted: Jul. 8, 2023 6:05PMDanyelle Brown doesn’t want to lose the only way of life her children have known. But on Saturday, the Nanaimo mom was facing losing her family’s income from farm eggs, and the chickens that her daughter has grown up with.“She’s attached to these animals and we hand-raised them, you know? It’s painful because this is all I know. This is my life,” she said.

Brown’s husband’s family has owned the 2.5-acre farm on 9th Street for 11 years, and she said it was a farm for decades before that.But development has built up around the plot quickly, and the area is thick with houses and traffic now. On Friday, Nanaimo Animal Control officers notified Brown that she has to get rid of her chickens, geese and ducks by this coming Tuesday because of a noise complaint over her roosters.

“What changed is someone didn’t like the noises and just one person complaining has just put our life upside down,” said Brown.“I’m shocked. I can’t believe it. They’re absolutely sweet,” said Susan Ranger, who lives across the street from Mossy Rock Farm.“They’ve got to have a better reason than just one complaint,” said neighbour Amalie Nelson.

Brown has now learned that zoning was changed to residential for all of the housing development happening in the area, and the farm was never grandfathered to let it keep being a farm.Sign up for the CHEK Now daily email newsletter to get breaking news and the day's top stories sent to your email.“And even after explaining we’ve been a farm after all these years he doesn’t want to hear it,” said Brown.

When contacted by CHEK News Saturday, Nanaimo Animal Control said that staff received a telephone complaint about the farm and had to act on it because they are in charge of enforcing the city’s bylaws. They referred all of our questions to the City of Nanaimo. Yet, our attempts to do that were denied as no one there was available on Saturday.“They’ve got to change the zoning and get rid of those motorcycles that make a lot more noise than those chickens do,” said Ranger.

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