A North Huntingdon teenager and her family will have to wait a few more weeks while the township zoning hearing board pecks over evidence and decides whether to grant them a special exception to keep the nine beloved chickens the teen has raised for six years.
Barb and Don Hensler, along with their 14-year-old daughter, Melissa, appeared before the panel for the second time in three months Tuesday night in an attempt to convince the board their chickens are pets and should be permitted to live in their residential neighborhood.
The ordinance does not permit chickens in a residential area without 20 acres. The code permits fowl in residential areas, but classifies canaries rather than chickens as fowl. The Henslers challenged that definition.
An anonymous neighbor squawked about the chickens this past summer, so the Henslers went before the zoning hearing board but were denied a special exception to keep the birds.
Unruffled by the initial defeat, the Henslers got their eggs together for a second hearing last night. This time, they challenged the vagueness of the ordinance and the definitions of the words "pets" and "fowl." They also asked to be grandfathered into the ordinance and allowed to keep their chickens until the birds pass away.
Also in attendance yesterday was Sundae, their rooster who was presented the "Most Unusual Pet" award by the township in a 2005 contest, and two of their hens, Lucy and Hershey.
Sundae stood quietly in his cage throughout the two-hour hearing. However, he did crow twice on his behalf when board members entered the meeting room and when testimony was closed. The hens did not cluck any comments.
Melissa Hensler told the board her chickens enriched her life in many ways and opened her eyes to the power of speaking out for what she believed.
"These are my pets. I love them so much. They are my companions. They always come to me, and they love me," the eighth-grade Norwin Middle School student said.
Barb Hensler said her family had collected 723 signatures in favor of keeping the chickens, including 72 from neighbors in the County Hills housing plan and 201 from an online petition.
Chairman Theodore Wawrzyniak and board members Jacqueline Willis and Greg Artim questioned the Henslers at length about their chickens, including how they purchase supplies, whether they could be cared for by local veterinarians and how they meet the ordinance, which defines pets as something normally kept to provide comfort and companionship.
Artim said he was "on a fence" about how "normal" it was to keep chickens as pets.
Willis said she was finding it difficult to define a chicken, which provides a food source such as eggs or meat, as a normal pet.
"They're providing food. I would never eat my cat," she said.
Board members Robert Barger and Fred Lau said they had no problem with allowing the Henslers to keep their chickens.
The board then made a motion to table a vote until Dec. 4, when it will reveal its decision.
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