CLUCK's Chicken-Related Code Enforcement Quiz Results • Please be seated to read this!

Maybe you saw the Quiz that ran for a number of days in the upper righthand corner of the blog.

Apparently not too many people saw it, or were otherwise engaged because only three people bothered to record an answer. And nobody really nailed it.


Two people thought it had to be a trick question, and one person thought it would be around four percent. 


Here's the scoop: According to the City, during fiscal years 2009 and 2010 the City received 2,988 (that's nearly 3,000!) complaints in which resulted in the following cases where code compliance orders were issued:

·         overgrowth- 1011 cases 29%

·         junk/trash/rubbish - 834 cases 28%

·         housing - 337 cases 11%

·         inoperable motor vehicles - 304 cases 10%

·         illegal exterior storage - 148 cases 5%

·         illegal signs - 109 cases 3.6%

·         no water - 97 cases 3%

·         boats/trailers front yard-52 cases 1.7%

·         commercial vehicles - 48 1.6%

·         trash cans - 39 1.3%

·         graffiti  - 19 .006%

They did respond to 7 chicken complaints (out of nearly 3,000) and only one of them actually resulted in generating a case.  

So 7 out of 2,988 equals 00.2342 percent of the complaints. If that number quadrupled (to 28 complaints) it will still only be 00.9368%. That's a little less than one percent of all code complaints.

Of course, this assumes the volume of other complaints will remain more or less constant. So if you checked trick question and want to feel okay about yourself, you can argue that it all depends on the number of other complaints. Point taken.

CLUCK's point is that, in the greater scheme of things, seven complaints in two years is not a lot and those were complaints regarding people who were violating the law. And only one case resulted.


We'd like to think that people who get chickens after the ordinance is passed will be at least as responsible.

For a humorous treatment (with real facts) of other communities code enforcement realities see David Grimes Offers to Help with Sarasota Chicken Enforcement.


See also Chickens Not A Problem After 2 Year Test in Colorado.


Don't forget to respond to the poll in the upper right letting us know where you live.

David Grimes Offers to Help with Sarasota Chicken Enforcement

Resourceful humor columnist David Grimes, possibly fearful of the trajectory of print media, is testing the waters with a possible career change as chicken cop. Of course, chicken enforcement in Sarasota may not have much of a future if some other communities are any indication.

Seattle is apparently a hip city somewhere left of Chicago that is best known for the Space Needle, a large object loosely based on the parachute jump at Coney Island. Seattle recently increased the number of chickens residents can have from three to eight --probably a desperate effort to retain work for their chicken enforcers. They must be trying to get to a number of hens high enough to provoke a reaction from neighbors, most of whom are employed as extras on Grey's Anatomy.

And those assigned to chicken enforcement in Fort Collins Colorado are thinking of trading places with Maytag repairmen -- out of 12,000 animal control calls in 2009 only 3 were chicken related. Other calls were for oxygen for chickens too rapidly relocated from Florida.

Cary, North Carolina has had similar dismal results keeping chicken enforcers employed -- less than .3% of their animal control calls were chicken related. Grimes only hope is that Sarasota is significantly more dysfunctional than dozens of other cities that allow backyard hens.