Thanks to One Hundred Dollars a Month reader, Karen, for sending me this article featured on the Huffington Post earlier this month. The article describes the plight of one family to keep their backyard chickens, which they originally acquired when their autistic son’s pediatrician recommended they get a pet to help with social skills.
The boy, J.J. didn’t respond to their family dog, so the family turned to chickens. J.J. responded well to the chickens, and the family enjoyed teaching him about the animals, eggs, etc. Then, the DeBary, Florida city council voted that they would not extend the backyard chicken permits, and J.J. and his family faced losing their pets.
The family fought to get the city council to reconsider the proposal, but the decision stood, and they were told they would need to get rid of their chickens by December 31st, 2013. The family continued to fight–this time with a lawyer, media, and facebook. I wanted to know how the whole debacle turned out, so I clicked over the family’s facebook page. Turns out, they were granted a special permit allowing J.J. to keep his chickens.
Don’t you just love it when stories have happy endings? How about you, do you have chickens? Would you fight to be able to keep them, if your city decided not to allow them anymore?
~Mavis
Emma Benefiel says
Having a son with Autism, I am so happy to see that he was able to keep his chickens!! we recently adopted a kitten and my son loves this kitten, sleeps with him every night, he is no longer scared at night and isn’t having the nightmares he used to have. should check out the story of Xena the Warrior Puppy, so special. It is amazing what animals can do:)
Michele in Salem says
I work with a number of people with autism and I have chickens. I haven’t taken them to work with me yet but I’ve been thinking about it as a winter activity for a cold day when we can’t get out to the garden. I think that the benefits of a relationship with chickens to individuals with autism would be huge!
Mavis Butterfield says
Me too! Anything that can help make a connection with autistic children is awesome.
Cecily says
I live in an unincorporated part of pierce county in a rural buffer zone. I specifically moved here so that I could keep farm animals yet still be close to Tacoma (I’m 10 minutes from the downtown core). I don’t have to worry about my community banning chickens since our area’s zoning cannot be changed for 25 years. It seems to me that J.J.’s parents showed a certain lack of judgment by getting chickens knowing that they had only a trial permit to keep them. My son has Asperger ‘s. Though I would do whatever was necessary to make his life more comfortable (he has a cat that I am allergic to, but it helps him cope when things get overwhelming for him), I would try all my options (they only tried a dog. Why not a cat, indoor bird, rabbit i.e. ?) rather than trying one that may end up being against the laws set out by the community. Without laws and regulations we would have Anarchy.
Allison says
This was on the FB page today at 10:28 AM EST. Looks like it hasn’t been voted on yet, so hear is hoping JJ gets to keep his “ducks”!
SAVE JJ HART’s “Ducks”
15 hours ago.
Everyone thinks the fight for JJ is over. The truth is this has NOT been voted on yet. We need as many people at next Wednesday Dec. 18th 6PM council meeting as possible. Please?
Karen says
Mavis, thank you so much for putting this out there. I figure the more people that hear about, the more that can help. The family is still fighting the battle but they are hoping for a positive outcome!