Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The majority of a 4-hour marathon session of The Dalles City Council last night was spent on a proposed major rewrite of the city code dealing with animals in the city limits. The ordinance would define household pets, which would not require a license, livestock which would require a license and all other animals, which would be banned. It would also add restrictions on livestock numbers, and minimum space requirements.
A half-dozen people spoke against various aspects of the changes. Former City Manager Julie Krueger protested the limit of four chickens:
“Right now I have six chickens. Two of them lay eggs. The other four are retired on the job, and so I could have up to a dozen chickens at a time, because I’m not going to kill my old chickens.”
She also said she had a good track record:
“I’ve been working on 13 years as a chicken keeper. I’ve never had a nuisance complaint against me. My neighbors love my chickens so much that when their daughter was little, they put a ladder up against the fence so she could climb it and watch them all day.”
The proposed changes would have banned horses and goats completely, except for those already in place, which would be grandfathered in. As such, when those animals died, the could not be replaced. That stirred Councilor Rod Runyon to conjure up this scenario:
“I don’t know how many of us have granddaughters here at the council, but if I had a horse or two, one that my 10-year-old granddaughter loved. It was an older horse that fell over one day and I can’t replace it according to this new ordinance, boy, that would be life-changing for me.”
In the end, councilors agreed to make a number of changes to the plan, and staff suggested that it come back before he council two meetings from now on March 10.