Butler Township has expressed their dislike to having backyard chickens in what is considered residential zoned areas. We are here to show them that not only do people have the right to contain life sustaining animals on their property, but also to show them the benefits of doing so.

My name is Stephanie Green and I live in Butler, PA. It's about an hour north of Pittsburgh, PA. I would consider this area very rural after living in Pittsburgh for a large part of my life. We recently decided over the pandemic that it is very important to our family to start being more self sustaining on our property. We have purchased raspberry bushes, strawberry patches, rhubarb, and even put in a very large growing area on our 1 acre property. I always loved gardening but now I'm really putting in the extra effort. Last year I did a salsa garden and canned 45 quarts of salsa. Now we have enough for at least 2 years if planned right!

A little about our family

My husband is a self employed general contractor. He has been lucky and has continued to work throughout the pandemic. I am a self employed musician. I teach violin, guitar, and piano lessons, and I am a professional violinist. Before the pandemic I played over 100 bookings a year. Not too bad right! During the last year I have lost 75% of my income revenue, Not Good!

We have 3 small children, Isabella is 10, Floyd is 7, and Summer is 5. We homeschool our children and believe in a solid Christian upbringing. Some of these chickens are actually apart of my Bella's 4-H Poultry Project. If you know about 4-H then you know how educational it is both mentally, physically, and emotionally.

The benefits of having backyard chickens

If I had to describe what it's like having backyard chickens to someone that had no idea I would simply say, "It's like having a bunch of little kids around except they lay eggs!" Haha, all jokes aside, I'm not sure what I would say really. I'm not good with words, but what I would say is that chickens are easier to take care of than a dog or a cat, that I can tell you for sure. You give them a home to sleep in and stay safe at night. You clean it out as needed, usually once a week. Give them fresh water and food. And they give you super nutritious eggs everyday! That is pretty much it.

Can you train a chicken?

I certainly trained my chickens! Instinctively chickens don't go very far. Especially if one of them has been picked up by a hawk or racoon. They stay pretty close to the coup on our property. Never have they ever went in the neighbors property and if they get close to it I have a special way to get them back. I whistle at them! How did this come about? Well chickens aren't as stupid as people think. They respond to, well, food of course. I started by using a ringtone on my phone that sounded like a whistle, and I would give them lots of bread. They love bread. Anyways, every time I played that ringtone I'd give them bread. Now I just whistle and they run their little buts so fast it's quit hysterical. You do have to keep giving them treats though otherwise they kind of forget...

In Conclusion

There is so much information online that I could post. This issue is one where many townships and government officials across the United States are overstepping their boundaries. We need to constantly remind them that they are only here to protect our constitutional rights, not create tyranny. Everyone has the right to own chickens. As long as you are taking care of them, and they are not going onto someone else's property than there should be no problems.

If there has to be rules,then these officials should be the ones responsible for explaining those rules in explicit details so that the public understands them. And finally, there should also be special exemptions for programs such as 4-H. If I child wants to learn and experience the life of a chicken, goat, pig, or any type of farm animal, just let them do it. These might be our future farmers, farmers feed people, not the government.

Thanks for reading our message, please sign our petition! God Bless You and God Bless America!!!!