Canada: Salt Spring Island ‘chicken war’ moves to court as rooster owner challenges noise bylaw
Battle on Gulf Island highlights tension between rural zoning and bylaw prohibiting nuisance noise
By Jason Proctor
CBC News
May 17, 2022
Excerpt:
Warren Dingman calls them “chicken wars” — paltry poultry disputes that crop up on B.C.’s Gulf Islands each year as dependably as a cockerel’s crow.
Ground zero for 2022 is Salt Spring Island, where concerns about rooster noise have led to bylaw tickets, spreads in the local newspaper and even a pro-rooster petition.
As Islands Trust head bylaw officer, Dingman’s bailiwick only extends to land use. Noise complaints are the Capital Regional District’s business. But that doesn’t mean residents don’t complain to him. Or that he doesn’t have sympathy for both sides of the debate.
He recently spoke with a man on a different island who thought the rooster next door was so loud its owners must have hooked the bird up to an amplifier.
“I don’t think that’s true, but that’s what it’s like to him,” Dingman says.
“It is a rural area, and on a great many of the properties, people are going to be able to do agriculture, and they’re going to be keeping chickens. And so that comes as a shock to some folks.”
