Feathers Are Flying
In Prince William, Backyard Birds Are Reminders Of Home for Some but an Annoyance for Others

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 14, 2007

When a neighbor's rooster began crowing in the middle of her pool party last month and everyone laughed, Virginia Paris did, too, but privately, she was seething. Already, marauding hens had ransacked her flower garden; now, an unruly cock was conjuring Old MacDonald for her guests.

"It was embarrassing," said Paris, who lives with her family at the top of a tidy cul-de-sac in Dale City. She and her husband have since staked a "for sale" sign to their lawn, seeing the rooster moment as a low point in the long decline of their feelings about the area.

"It was too much," Paris said. "I can't live with roosters in my neighborhood."

Backyard poultry have been popping up all over Prince William County recently, to the amusement-- and alarm -- of residents and county officials. County zoning laws ban farm animals from most residential areas, but in the past year, inspectors have tallied as many as 32 chicken violations, a large increase from 2004, when they had three.

The county does not keep records as to violators' ethnicity, but in most cases, officials and homeowners say, the offending fowl are introduced by Hispanic immigrant families who want to keep the birds as pets. Fines are rarely levied, because the vast majority of complaints are resolved through voluntary compliance, according to inspectors. But the sight and sound of suburban chickens are one more worry for those who see the birds as part of the escalating culture clash in Prince William, in which previous skirmishes have broken out over illegal construction, overcrowding, vehicles parked on lawns and other "quality-of-life" issues.

This week, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously approved an anti-illegal immigrant resolution, saying that it will diminish those behaviors by driving out the group. The resolution directs police officers to check the residency status of anyone in their custody they suspect is an illegal immigrant and directs county staff to determine legal ways to deny access to public services and benefits for illegal immigrants.

It's unclear what effect, if any, this will have on the county's unlawful chickens, some of which are brought to Prince William by homesick legal residents. As Leiby Rodriguez, a Dale City resident, explained, her younger brother recently brought home a rooster and a hen because the birds reminded him of his grandfather's farm in the Dominican Republic. When zoning inspectors ordered the family to get rid of the animals, Rodriguez and her mother cooked them for dinner. Her brother bitterly abstained.

"He was really sad about the whole thing," Rodriguez said.

Other counties with large Hispanic immigrant communities say they do not have a chicken trend comparable to Prince William's. In Fairfax County, complaints are declining, with only seven registered so far in 2007. Complaints have held steady in Prince George's County, officials there said, averaging a dozen a year. In Montgomery County, zoning laws allow residents to keep poultry in their back yards provided the birds are not within 100 feet of a dwelling.

So for now, the problem appears to be most pronounced in Prince William, where relatively affordable housing has attracted a large influx of Latin American immigrants in recent years. Many newcomers are from rural areas in Mexico and Central America, where chickens roam without fear of zoning inspectors.

County officials and residents say they are sensitive to this fact and do not want to disparage others' cultures and customs. "I'm Hispanic; I understand," said Paris, a native of Uruguay. "We're open-minded. But this is an urban environment."

Another neighbor, retired Army Master Sgt. Jim Lovett, sees the situation in less uncertain terms. "The law is the law," he said. "If they want to raise chickens, they can buy a farm and raise anything they want."

Unhappy residents have called Supervisor John D. Jenkins (D-Neabsco) in recent months after being wakened by roosters. "We're trying our best to deal with it and let everybody know it's illegal," Jenkins said.

When authorities receive a complaint, an inspector is usually dispatched within a week, said Neighborhood Services Division chief Michelle Casciato, whose office handles 4,000 complaints a year on a broad range of quality-of-life issues. If the problem isn't resolved voluntarily, the offending party can be summoned to court and fined.

Officials say health concerns about the birds outweigh possible disruptions to a community's quiet. "You could conceivably keep a pet chicken in sanitary conditions, but more often than not, people aren't scrupulous," said county environmental health manager John Meehan. "A lot of what they eat is not digested, so it can become food for other animals. If you're feeding chickens corn, that would be a very ready source for rats."

Then there's the danger of an animal death. "Some chickens have been killed by dogs, and you don't like to see dogs killing chickens in front of kids," Jenkins said.

Last month, Cristina Morales thought such a fate had befallen her rooster. Morales and her husband grew up in rural Honduras, and when their kids noticed that another family in the neighborhood had chickens, they wanted some, too. Her husband brought home two hens and a rooster, then turned them loose to peck in the back yard. But there was one problem with this free-range experiment.

"We don't have a fence, so they got out," Morales explained in Spanish. When their neighbors complained, Morales said she and her husband gave the hens away but couldn't find the rooster. The kids clamored for replacements. "My son says, 'Mami, buy me another chicken; I want another little chicken,'" she said, shrugging. "I don't see what's wrong with it."

Last week, a rooster, hen and numerous chicks were seen in the Morales family's yard. Neighbors claim the family is keeping the birds indoors, allowing them outside on occasion to peck and scratch in the yard.

But tolerance is running low these days among jittery Prince William residents who say they see too many houses for sale, too many foreclosures, and too many unkempt yards for their liking. That's why Virginia Paris and her husband, Cavin Mooers, said they're eager to sell. "We're afraid our home will depreciate more, so now we want to make a run for it," Paris said.

They're looking for a place with a no-nonsense attitude about annoyances. "I used to think that I didn't want to be part of a homeowners association because of all the politics," Mooers said. "But I learned my lesson."