The Reason Key West Made An Ordinance About Chickens

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

As the Miami Herald reports, all of this chicken-related drama has caused the city of Key West to pass a new ordinance that makes feeding the feral chickens illegal. Under the new rule, the first time you're caught feeding a chicken you'll be fined $250. After that, the fine goes up to $500.

The chicken population has exploded, and after their traditional roosting spots were destroyed by Hurricane Georges in 1998 the chickens quickly moved into the more populous areas of the city. As The New York Times reports, Key West has also experienced a period of intense gentrification, with a lot of wealthy people building million-dollar homes on the island. These wealthy new residents don't want wild chickens roaming their manicured gardens.

The chickens are also kind of gross. Because they're so fat and well-fed, they poop literally everywhere. They also get run over by cars quite often, leaving horrifying chicken corpses everywhere, and residents have reported aggressive chickens attacking their legs as they try to enter their homes. The Chicken Problem has been exacerbated by some residents who feed and care for the chickens, which led other residents to seek the assistance of law enforcement, only to discover that there's no ordinance against it. In fact, the only chicken-related law on the books forbade killing chickens. This prompted a movement promoting the new ordinance.

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