The following opinion piece is a community submission and doesn’t reflect the opinion of TRN Media, which encompasses SweetwaterNOW and The Radio Network. 

Dear Editor,

You may have heard, but the question of changing the city ordinance to allow chickens in the city limits of Rock Springs is up for it’s final vote tomorrow at our city council meeting.

I wanted to discuss the following reasons for supporting this ordinance change.

• Data. The most recent data (Closed 4/14/25) collected using Google Forms and Facebook gave us a total of 117 responses. This collected email addresses and only allowed one response. As you can see from the charts, the respondents overwhelmingly favor:

• To discuss data a little further, a similar method of collecting data was used in March and had 301 total responses. This data also showed an overwhelming favor of changing the ordinance. Data collected at two different intervals using the same method shows that residents who have responded clearly favor an ordinance change.

• Sustainability. Chickens eat pretty much all kitchen scraps. When we consider that the average American creates 219 pounds of food waste a year (1), we acknowledge that my family of four creates over 600 pounds of food waste per year (probably more, because, well, kids). Chickens eat this food waste, so a backyard flock essentially keeps 200 pounds of trash, per year per person out of landfills. This could conceivably extend the life of a landfill. In fact, it has in European municipalities (2) such as Colmar in France where families were given free hens to reduce food waste. In addition, chickens droppings are a great source of compost and fertilizer for gardens. As part of a sustainable garden, chickens, aerate soil, eat bugs and other pests, and fertilize garden beds (3). From personal experience, composting food waste takes a lot of space and it would be a great reduction in needed space (for me) if chickens could eat the waste and provide manure instead. 
• Animal Welfare. Standard factory farming practices for egg laying hens has them in small, cramped cages where they cannot even stretch their wings, much less engage in normal social behaviors (3). Backyard flocks that provide eggs for households mean one less family needs to benefit (via eggs) from standard factory farming practices. Backyard chickens are allowed to engage in normal social behaviors and eat a variety of foods. In fact, if 1 in 3 households raised their own chickens, there would no longer be a need for an egg industry in the US (4). From personal experience, those who keep backyard chickens generally treat them like pets, thus they are far better cared for than birds in factory farms.
• Health. Eggs sourced from backyard farms have higher vitamin E content and Omega 3 fatty acids than grocery store eggs sourced from the egg industry. In addition chickens provide mental health benefits such as encouraging a routine, reductions in anxiety and depression, and lessening loneliness (5). They also trigger fewer allergies than dogs and cats (5).

There are several concerns that have been brought up that I would like to address.

• Avian Influenza. This flu infects birds through contact and can infect humans through direct contact with infected birds. Human to human contact has not been reported. Backyard chickens can contract avian flu. For chicken owners, it is important to practice good PPE and sanitation practices for themselves. For neighbors, avian flu is not a concern unless they are directly handling infected birds. Further, Wyoming has only had one human case this year. (6)
• Policing and animal control concerns. In phone calls with animal control in Laramie, Gillette, Evanston, Green River, and Cheyenne and none of the ACO’s I spoke with reported problems with chickens. All the ACO’s reported that chickens are not really a problem for them. It is impossible to fully compare our Animal Control to the Animal Controls in other communities; budgets and staffing differ. ACO Candy Folks voiced many legitimate concerns at our last meeting. Concerns such as chickens being killed by stray dogs and predators are a risk chicken owners sign up for. The issue with housing surrendered birds at the facility is a big hurdle. I believe this could be solved by working with local businesses such as Wool Warehouse to help facilitate the transfer of surrendered birds to area farmers. Another possible solution is to have a call list of local residents with backyard coops who leave an open space or two to allow a spot for surrendered birds. Yet another possible solution is working with area Scouts or the CTE academy at RSHS to get a coop and run built at Animal Control as a service project. 
• Noise. At their loudest, a backyard chicken coop is around 60-70 decibels, which is similar to a human conversation. For comparison, a single dog barking is equal to, on average, 90 decibels. (7) To ensure that noise is regulated, many cities do not allow roosters and/or limit the flock size. 
• Smell/unsanitary conditions. Chickens generate about .0035 cubic feet of manure per day. A dog on the other hand produces .75 cubic feet of manure per day (8). As with all responsible pet ownership, it is up to the owner to clean up the coops and runs. There are many tips for keeping a sanitary coop, including using sand and smart construction (9). To ensure that coops stay clean, city ordinances generally include steps for nuisance complaints. 
• I support backyard chickens. The data from two different surveys show that our residents largely also support backyard chickens. There are many benefits to keeping chickens that far outweigh possible negatives. Negative aspects of keeping chickens are negated by working with community partners and personal maintenance of coops, runs, and birds to ensure sanitation. If we look at the whole US, 93% of the largest 150 cities allow backyard flocks (10). In Wyoming, I have only found that Torrington, Rock Springs, and Jackson do not allow backyard chickens. In short, backyard chickens show proven benefits, have shown to work for many US municipalities, and have fewer negative outcomes than benefits.

The next city council meeting is on Tuesday at 7 p.m. I encourage you to call your ward representative and voice your support or concern ahead of that meeting. Thank you. 

Submitted by Amanda Margrave

Sources:

1. https://earth.org/food-waste-in-america/#:~:text=8.,municipal%20solid%20waste%20(MSW).

2. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250317-these-european-towns-in-france-and-belgium-hand-out-free-chickens

3. https://greenamerica.org/green-living/many-benefits-backyard-chickens\

4. https://medium.com/land-and-ladle/zero-waste-and-the-rise-of-the-backyard-chicken-dcd200b221d3#:~:text=First%20of%20all%2C%20if%20you,Pavlov%20would%20be%20so%20proud!

5. ​​https://thecdia.org/six-health-benefits-of-raising-chickens-3/#:~:text=They%20Provide%20Laughter&text=Not%20only%20are%20chickens%20entertaining,higher%20levels%20of%20good%20cholesterol.

6. https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/avian-influenza/

7. https://www.backyardchickencoops.com.au/blogs/learning-centre/how-noisy-are-chickens

8. https://archive.rcgov.org/ca20110307/LF030211-13/RCBackyardChickenKeeping.pdf

9. https://the-chicken-chick.com/5-tips-for-cleaner-coop-with-less-effort/

10. https://theconversation.com/a-chicken-in-every-backyard-urban-poultry-needs-more-regulation-to-protect-human-and-animal-health-93113#:~:text=A%202015%20review%20of%20150,percent)%20allowed%20backyard%20poultry%20flocks.