Court: Urban hens can also be pets

Here’s a look at some of the local news over the past week:

A state appeals court rejected the “Chicken Littleesque” notion that “the sky will fall” if backyard hens are allowed in a subdivision just east of Santa Fe, reversing a district court ruling that the community’s covenants outlaw the poultry because they cannot be classified as pets. That throws the yearslong fight — the Eldorado Community Improvement Association first sued the hen-keepers in 2012 and the fight burbled among residents well before then — back into the laps of community residents and their association.

ECIA president Dag Ryen said Wednesday the board will meet with its attorney and decide on a course of action in the next few days. The fact that judges have disagreed on the interpretation of the law “indicates how divisive this issue can be,” he said. “My personal aim is to move forward, get this behind us and find some consensus in the community,” Ryen added.

Eldorado covenants say “No animals, birds or poultry shall be kept or maintained on any lot, except recognized household pets.” New Mexico Court of Appeals Judge Jonathan Sutin concluded that the Eldorado rule cannot be enforced “to preclude the owners from keeping their hens as recognized household pets.” He noted that definitions of a pet don’t exclude the possibility that pets also can serve a use. “For purposes here, hens kept as a source of eggs are poultry, and hens also kept as a source of companionship or pleasure can be a pet,” the ruling states.

Sutin’s opinion said “we disagree that to allow hens as household pets creates or opens up any likely circumstances of ruination.” Chicken opponents have argued that allowing chickens would open the barn door for other animals, like cows or mules.