Discussions will be underway tomorrow evening about the possibilities of creating an Animal Control Ordinance for the town of Derry.
Other towns have such laws that regulate the amount of land a land owner must have in order to own such animals as horses, goats, pigs, and chickens.
The questions will be just how much land is needed to own lets say a horse? Is it 1 acre, 2 or 3 acres? What should that requirement be and should the same land threshold apply to chickens that horses should require? These can be some complicated matters to "iron out"
We have heard stories of multiple horses on a 3/4 acre parcel- heck I've even seen horse on properties right off By-Pass 28. Is this cruel or unusual? Good questions! Who will determine the laws? what will the penalties be? Will we be meddling with Land owners rights? Will the town be challenged?
I certainly understand that anyone that would treat animals in a cruel way should be prosecuted to the fullest under the state laws we have today. The story a couple weeks back of the Salem women that had hundreds of dogs living in squalid conditions is a very sick and cruel person who should be taken to court and prosecuted! No doubts.
I will see what the discussion brings, however my first thoughts are with land owner rights and unless arguments are shown that Derry needs new laws to protect animals is necessary,I will side on proceeding slowly. After all we do have state laws in place already, do we need more stringent laws locally? Stay tuned- It will be a very interesting discussion. What are your thoughts???
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32 comments:
Brian,
This doesn't seem like it will be a very easy issue to deal with. Why is this being discussed now... a concerned citizen?; a state RSA?; Police dept./ACO request? What does the Town currently have for an animal control ordinance?
I have no idea what the ideal amount of open space should be for any type of animal, so I can't contribute too much to that aspect. How do the Town's attorney's feel about this?
Anyway, I'd like to see a true "leash law" in place requiring all dogs be on a leash at all times.
I'm going to resist the temptation to make the obvious link between "animal control" and derry town politics.
Having said that and echoing a little from d3, it seems to me that is not a prominent issue, at least in my circles.
Are there really situations of neglect, abuse, or other issue related to this out there?
Doesn't the town council have more important issues to deal with? Animal cruelty is a different issue than restricting land owners' rights. If someone wants to have a horse or goats or chickens on 3/4 acre, who am I to say what they can do with their land? Probably some neighbor that doesn't like the smell of manure or the sounds of the animals.
Give me a break
'If someone wants to have a horse or goats or chickens on 3/4 acre, who am I to say what they can do with their land? Probably some neighbor that doesn't like the smell of manure or the sounds of the animals'says Anonymous 4:59pm! Until it's YOU that is seeing this from YOUR front window or hearing roosters at sunrise waking YOU up. YOU....complaining from your comfortable, highly taxed home. There has to be sevility and some semblence of order.
I think this issue should be address. For the good of all of us.The Town Council does have things to do. Keeping us safe is one of them! They don't allow junk cars and garbage on your front lawn do they? Give ME a break!
'If someone wants to have a horse or goats or chickens on 3/4 acre, who am I to say what they can do with their land? Probably some neighbor that doesn't like the smell of manure or the sounds of the animals'says Anonymous 4:59pm! Until it's YOU that is seeing this from YOUR front window or hearing roosters at sunrise waking YOU up. YOU....complaining from your comfortable, highly taxed home. There has to be sevility and some semblence of order.
I think this issue should be address. For the good of all of us.The Town Council does have things to do. Keeping us safe is one of them! They don't allow junk cars and garbage on your front lawn do they? Give ME a break!
anon459 here. I do have a neighbor with roosters. He crows. Big deal. Car and truck engines are louder than the rooster. Should we ban those as well? People with these animals pay taxes too. Shouldn't they be allowed to use their land as they see fit. There is no saftey issue with these animals.
just a quick thought..Annon 9:43 they do allow junk cars on your lawn just drive around the town and you will see that as well as garbage. try windham road, for one. i am for controlling animals on property but more so for keeping it clean i wouldn't want any of my neighbors to have a horse and smell manure all the day long. who will address these issues? the animal control dept who ONLY deals with dogs. i agree that i is private land but what rights do neighbors have if they have an ignorant animal lover???
Brian:
As long as keepers of livstock do so in a hyngienic, humane way, and use best management practices in waste control, I don't believe this is a matter for the Planning Board to wrangle with. If there is a health issue, then the health officer should deal with each case as they arise.
I agree with you 1:19pm on one point. The junk cars on Windham Rd. If you are thinking of the same home as I it's more than one or even two vehicles....look into the driveway. We're talking a storage bin, a trailor plus cars etc. The etc would include roosters and chickens. You can also find old computers out back in 'what use to be' Crystal Springs. What a sight of neglect.....
What one person considers 'humane' is another persons dinner! As A kid we raised chickens, rabbits, a pig or two and had a hugh garden. We ate it ALL. So what is humane? I think buffer zones similar to business versus residential are what is needed. Not sure what the right 'buffer' would be yet, but will post more when I have an idea.
BC,
I have a buddy that lives on humphrey road where the rec. dept and town field is now.He and his neighbors bought horse farms on that street because it was close to work and quite. NOT ANYMORE.
Starting at 8 am in the morning til late at night there is load speakers, with loud people, cars sqealing rubber at the end of every event out both exits and entrances.
His driveway washes out every time he gets 3-4 days of rain from the lousy planing and engineering the town of Derry DID WITH THAT PROJECT.
Can you imagine sticking a loud park in the middle of two (were nice ) horse farms.Ride over there yourself and talk with the neighbors,dont take my word.
The town should stick with what it knows best.
ADDING MORE DRUG STORES AND RAISING TAXES. Keep the hell away from animals or farming.
anon 8:08 where is all the uproar over this crystal springs or contaminated springs, is what is sounds like. where are all the advocates for keeping our waterways clean????
This threads title asks a question.
This persons answer would be that we probably should have an ordinance. BUT I dont' see it as a front burner issue meaning that we can take our time, dot the i's and cross the t's.
This is different from my feeling on other larger and more complex issues like economic development.
Lets' get moving - we will never achieve a perfect development/plan or strategy - progress is more important than perfection.
BC:
I'm still waiting to hear why this issue has surfaced and what the background behind it is?
D3,
Not exactly sure how this issue came to be recently. I do know that some people have had an issue with neighbors having animals close-by.
They say in today's Eagle-Trib that the towns animal officer had maybe 30 complaints over a years time. How many do they get for barking dogs? The point being, one complaint every couple weeks, in my opinion, is not justification for getting on the council agenda.
Also, they interviewed Paul Kimball who is complaining about horses on McKinley Ave. This is the same guy who claims to have finally gotten action on the private roads issue by threatening to sue the town.
Maybe he's getting action on this because the town's afraid of the same thing happening on this issue.
It sets a bad precedent for the town to start trying to satisfy everyone who threatens to sue the town with a new ordinance as they appear to be doing for Mr. Kimball with the private road ordinance and now possibly this one.
Also the Eagle-Trib wrote that Mr. Al Dimmock wants to extend the scope of this ordinance to limit the munber of dogs you can have on your property.
My fear is that once government starts regulating something like this, where does it end? Animal free zoning districts?
I have a neighbor who has chickens and another neighbor who doesn't like him having chickens. If the one neighbor complains enough, will we try to regulate that too?
Health and animal cruelty issues are already addresed in state and federal laws. And the town really should not be wasting time on this issue. They have bigger fish to fry.
anyone know what the link is to watch the town council meetings on the web? appreciate it
http://www.derryctv.com
It's derryctv.com
Click on schedule - then search the Saturday after the meeting you want to watch - the click on that meeting and it should give prompt you if you want to "watch it now".
It takes a few days for the most recent meeting to be available.
If you want to save yourself the addititional clicks with Cable 17, view the meeting even sooner and also find out about other goings on in Derry, you can just go to www.abetterderry.com .
Just click on "View most recent Council Meeting" and watch your town government in action! We always have it on the site the day after the meeting.
Community for A Better Derry is proud to be the only group outside of Cable 17 providing this open and unbiased service to help people understand what's going on in our town.
Our hope is to give people a better understanding of how their town government operates, and promote true transparency in town government.
Our only goal is to enable people to make more informed decisions on town issues that matter to them.
As is the case with this blog, information and dialog are keys to moving our community forward. Whether you agree or disagree with a certain viewpoint, constructive dialog is always beneficial.
Re: 5:38PM....Go to www.derryctv.com
click on tv listings
type in name of meeting in search
click go and tadah....click to your hearts content (on view). I find that they are available by the next afternoon. It's very convenient.
PS
Job well done Cable 17. You've come a looooong way.
Everyone,
Just go to the top of the blog page and click on the link for the latest town council meeting video.
After watching Mr. Burtis' most recent performance bent on humiliating the town, I have changed my vote in your poll on the need for an animal control ordinance.
Brian, I wish I had read your blog sooner. I think anonymous would think differently about a large animal ordinance if he took a bag full of rats out of his basement. Derry is one of three towns without an ordinance and the state makes reccomendations for a reason. Neighbors have rights too. They should be able to sit on their porches and have a cookout without smelling horse manure. As far as the road is concerned, Mr. Kimball has made every attempt to go through the proper channels to resolve his road issue. He has been the spokesman for all of his neighbors on this issue, all of whom know that their road is PUBLIC. If town officials won't listen what does anonymous suggest?
Eddie
For those of you who think we don't need an ordinance in Derry for this you should come to my house in the evening in the spring and sit on my deck for a half hour. Both my neighbors behind my house raise chickens on their quarter acre parcels at Beaver lake. The smell and noise in the evening is horrible, one of them also has two horses and a couple roosters that wake my up in the morning,. This same neighbor had the nerve to tell me I shouldn't cut my grass before 9:00 am on a weekday. I pay Derry $9,000 dollars a year in taxes for a house that Derry accesses for $360,000 dollars that is worth about $290,000 today on good day , for that I expect something in return besides snow removal. I know some of it's to pay for the ins. buyout's for fire police etc......... I have my own gun and hose. I told my wife if this does not change that she can have the elephant she always wanted.
What ever happened to live free or die? Many of the farms were in existance before the neighbors bought their homes. I've heard neighbors that bought a place next to a farm complain about it. It was there when you bought it ---did you think it was going away? I've also heard a neighbor say that he bought the house next to the farm so he could watch the horses!
NH is still for the most part an argicultural state. That should allow for horses/chickens/etc.
I think there's more important items to regulate and Derry should focus on that and enforce it's current cruelty statutes rather than pander to the few complainers out there.
the issue here is why are these people complaining i drove by this location in question and spoke with the lady seen the coop real nice set up. these people have had problems with the neighbors for months as stated talk with the town people the neghbors are always calling its nice to have all the facts and focus on more important issues that are town needs other than peoples pets and our dis lik efor there choice of a pet
I think the land owner should be able to have whatever domestic animal he/she wants it's there land! As usual it's those few people who don't take care of their animals properly that wrecks it for everyone else! A smaller amount of land doesn't mean your animal isn't well cared for. You can have 20 acres and have animal cruelity.And you can still hear a rooster crow! If theres a problem with a few certain people, get the humane society involved and leave the rest of us law abiding, animal loving people alone!
We should be allowed to have any animals we want regardless of the size of our property! We pay very high taxes in Derry and it's our land!!!! If theres an animal thats poorly cared for or sick thats a job for the humane society, and there are laws already in place for just that.Whats next? Telling us how many kids we can have on our own property!!
Ha, wow. I think it's real nice how all these people from the city come up and tell us what to do. Derry used to be such a nice rural communtity but it's slowly turning into a suberb with too many apartments and such. If it's your land, you should be able to do what you want. That's how I see it. My horse is completetly fine. I live on less than an acre, but so what?!! Shes better off at my house then the barn we used to keep her at where she was in a very tiny space on over 40 acres of land!! Just because one person abuses there horse or farm animals ect., doesnt mean we all have to suffer the consequence. Give me a break. If the neighbors don't like it, they can move! I have the neighbors yelling at me and my family when theres no smell, nothing to see, and you hardly ever hear my horse winnie! This gets me very very mad. Wheres my pony supposed to go!? Slaughter is she has to go. That's another thing to think about. I'm only 13, but i'm smart enough to know what these people are all about.
I totally agree. NH is slowly being infected with city people who want their pesticide green lawns and regulations. Say goodbye to "Live Free or Die". It is a sad sad world we live in
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