BROWNSTOWN

For health reasons, Dawn Edwards would like to keep the six hens in the backyard of her Brownstown home.

According to Brownstown’s animal ordinance, it’s unlawful for a resident to keep domestic livestock or fowl, which includes chickens, within the town. That has been in place since Feb. 2, 2015.

During a recent meeting while requesting a variance to the ordinance, Edwards told the Brownstown Town Council she had had the chickens since January, but she wasn’t aware of an ordinance until talking to a neighbor.

Edwards raises the hens as a food source since she is very allergic to soy. She can’t buy grocery store eggs because many companies give soy-based feed to chickens that lay the eggs, and she said she nearly died about six months ago because she ate Worcestershire sauce, which contains soy.

"A year and a half ago, a doctor told me to be careful with my foods because soy byproduct comes with meat, and eggs could be an issue," she said. "I got ahold of some fried eggs at a restaurant, and sure enough, they were right. I ended up in the emergency room, and it was a disaster. I had ruptured blood vessels everywhere."

Edwards said she and her husband raised six hens for eggs and the meat so she knew there were no soy ingredients in her food.

"They are very well cared for — very, very well cared for," she said. "I have a very beautiful chicken coop my husband built. It’s very clean. They are watered, they are fed every day because that’s my food source. I eat those eggs. I eat the chickens. … That’s my food source, my primary diet."

A month ago, Edwards said a Brownstown Police Department officer came by her house with paperwork letting her know of the ordinance violation. She then called the town hall and was advised to be put on the town council agenda to discuss the issue.

"My neighbors have no issues with them, and I do not sell my eggs to anybody for any reason," Edwards said, adding she had those neighbors sign a petition saying they are OK with her having the hens in her backyard.

"I work for the school district. They all know that I have the soy allergy, so I don’t even eat the cafeteria food except for when they have salads, but I have no dressing. I just have greens and vegetables, nothing on it," she said. "I bring my own boiled eggs to school to eat, and I can’t even eat my deer meat my husband gets every year because the deer here feed on soy."

Edwards said she could move the hens to a family member’s home, but it would require her to travel there to care for them every day.

"I wouldn’t be able to be there every day because I run a business on top of working at the school, plus raising two children we adopted this year," she said. "There’s just not a lot of time for me to leave the property to go that far away and deal with this, and I can’t guarantee they will take care of the (hens) like they need to be done and stay with what I buy them to feed them so that I would be able to eat the food."

Town attorney Travis Thompson told Edwards the town council doesn’t have the power to make a special exception because there can’t be different laws for different people; however, an amendment could be made to the ordinance.

A resident violating the ordinance is subject to a $50 fine for the first offense, and that increases in increments of $50 for each subsequent offense.

"I can’t afford to be getting tickets or the reputation of being a bad person because I’m not," Edwards told the council.

Councilman Mark Reynolds said he understands Edwards’ predicament, but she needs to look at it from the council’s view, too.

"If we amend it saying you can (have chickens), then we open ourselves up to a lot to try to accommodate one. You’ve got to look at the whole town," he said.

Edwards said she understands that but knows of other residents in town who have chickens on their property.

"I know that would open some kind of gate that ‘Well, she’s got them, so why can’t I?’" she said. "The whole reason I’m here is because I am a citizen of Brownstown and I do recognize our rules, so that’s why I came to ask face to face instead of saying, ‘If they’ve got them…’"

Edwards said she would even be willing to put up a privacy fence that would keep the hens out of view to others and keep stuff from getting on them since they are close to an alleyway.

"If the town wants me to put up a completely shielded fence, I have no problem with that. We own a contracting company. We can do that," she said. "I’ll do what it takes within code to keep them."

Councilman Tim Robinson said he would like some time to digest all of the information and look into the ordinance more, and council President Gregg Goshorn said he wants to reach out to other communities to see what their rules are.

Goshorn said the issue would be back on the agenda for the July 6 council meeting.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

What: Brownstown Town Council meeting

When: 6 p.m. July 6

Where: Brownstown Town Hall, 116 E. Cross St., Brownstown

Who: Open to the public and press

[sc:pullout-text-end]