Published Monday, March 08, 2010

'I think we're losing something a lot of people liked' -- Glover

The Newnan Times-Herald

Gandy Glover's eyes glistened and his voice cracked as the brutal reality set in. After years of denial, he finally faced the fact that he would never keep a chicken in his backyard again.

At least not legally.

At least not in the City of Newnan.

"I hated to hear it come up again," Glover says. "It's the law, but I still don't like it. I think we're losing something a lot of people liked."

At its Feb. 9, 2010 meeting, the Newnan City Council -- over which Glover once presided as mayor -- adopted revised animal control regulations.

In addition to tightening dog control measures, the ordinance expanded the list of prohibited animals within the city to include "any wild animal or exotic pet, horse, donkey, swine, sheep, goats, cattle, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas, pheasant, emus, ostrich or other domesticated fowl."

Glover was aware backyard chickens were banned in the City of Homes, but the public reminder brought back a flood of memories, both painful and precious.

Glover claims he has never personally choked a chicken, much less wrung one's neck. But as a boy he had a ringside seat for plenty of chicken executions.

Every Saturday, Glover visited his grandmother, Becky Glover, at her Jackson Street home. He remembers helping his grandmother's cook, Ruby, snatch a chicken from the backyard and then watching in amazement as Ruby grabbed the bird by the neck and spun it until the chicken's body snapped off and sailed skyward like a feathery -- yet lifeless -- kite.

"That was something to see," Glover says. "Then Ruby would fry that thing up and she'd give me the pulley-bone piece. It was so good it was like dying and going to heaven."

As a teen, Glover and a buddy helped a Sprayberry Road woman tend her chickens. They collected the eggs and cleaned out the coops, covering the manure with lime and later raking it up for fertilizer.

"Chickens keep a yard clean," Glover says. "At my grandmother's house they ate the weeds and bugs and made things look really nice."

When Glover purchased his historic Temple Avenue home in 1973 he never considered a no-critters policy. An avid hunter and fisherman, Glover has stalked, shot or hooked one (or more) of just about every animal that boarded Noah's boat or swam beneath it.

When he's not hunting or fishing, Glover simply enjoys being around wildlife and has shared his property with dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, calves and a pair of pigs named Arnold and Ben.

Glover never felt led to pen up his poultry on a regular basis. Especially after he started spending time in the Florida keys. Glover says that in Key West, small local chickens have the run of the town and are dearly loved by the residents, not to mention the south Florida predators that snap up the tasty snacks with delight.

When Glover installed his last batch of backyard chickens a few years ago he thought they would enjoy the free-range experience, too. The birds were cooped up at night, but spent many days strutting through the College-Temple historic district.

Glover says he never got complaints from neighbors, but the birds crossed a line when they crossed the road to inspect a local civic project.

Glover got a visit from city animal officials, who said the chickens were disturbing workers by pecking away at the site where the new Veterans Memorial Plaza was being built.

"He said they were creating a problem and I needed to get them out of there," Glover says. "I did, and a little later I got rid of them when I found out keeping them was against the law. I really didn't know it was, but to tell the truth I never checked too hard."

Glover says it is ironic that local children interested in raising chickens would not be able to pursue that passion within the Newnan city limits, even though the Coweta County Fairgrounds recently was host to the Chattahoochee Valley Poultry Association's sixth annual poultry show.

The nationally sanctioned show and judging drew more than 1,000 chicken lovers from several neighboring states, all eager to fawn over the fowl and buy and sell birds, eggs and poultry-related products.

"It's sad that a 4-H kid who lives in Newnan probably can't be part of it," Glover says.

And Glover says you don't have to be a future farmer to enjoy chickens. In fact, he says those who suffered most when he kicked his backyard chicken habit were the neighborhood children.

Whenever baby chicks arrived, Glover invited the kids over to help with the chicken-raising. The youngsters were allowed to play with the birds or just watch them wander around. Each child got to put a colored band on his or her favorite chicken's leg to identify it during visits.

"They knew which chicken was theirs and they were always careful and treated them really good," Glover says. "The kids got to feed them and loved to watch them walk around and watch what all they did."

But while Newnan is tightening its backyard critter codes, other cities are accepting -- if not embracing -- the urban fowl concept. The Worldwatch Institute recently reported a spike in U.S. city dwellers who raise chickens, often in defiance of local laws.

Worldwatch's Ben Block wrote that cities including Ann Arbor, Mich., Ft. Collins, Colo., South Portland, Maine, and Madison, Wisc. have relaxed laws to allow a limited number of big city hens. Cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Seattle have never banned birds in the city limits.

Knowing backyard chickens are accepted elsewhere is no comfort to Glover, although he realizes the only town he has ever called home is rapidly changing.

"I understand why they have to restrict certain things," he says. "But I think we're missing out on a lot of things that people used to consider the normal way of life. Roosters can be a nuisance but I don't think chickens really bother anybody."

Glover says he misses the tasty fresh eggs and the smiles his birds brought to the faces of neighborhood kids. But mostly, he misses the company.

"Those chickens were soothing to have around," he says. "When they were in the coop and you could hear them clucking and making those little noises, it was really nice. I think anybody would enjoy it. I know I sure do miss them."