This is in response to a story (Feb. 12) about Lewiston City Councilors considering allowing chickens in some areas within city limits and letters responding to that story.

I was raised on a dairy farm. We always had at least 50 chickens, so I know:

— About 20 percent of the owners will not be responsible or think of the effect on their neighbors;

— There is nothing that smells as bad as chicken manure (and I grew up on a big dairy farm);

— You cannot clean it out of your grass;

— If there is any slope to a yard, when it rains, neighbors get it washed onto their property;

— There is no feeder that will keep out rats and mice, which will come to a constant food source and stay and reproduce;

— Skunks like to eat chickens and they will come to do that;

— City residents don’t have the luxury of taking a shotgun to a skunk that, once it has eaten chicken, will keep coming back;

— Any manure source draws flies —  a huge issue;

— Dogs (that were not raised around chickens) that are perfectly fine in their own yard will try to kill chickens or, at the very least, constantly bark at them;

— The ability to properly and humanely keep chickens during a long, cold winter requires a very good coop, which costs a substantial amount of money;

— The chickens would need fresh water at least twice a day in the winter because leftover water would freeze.

Chickens belong on farms.

Pete Alberda, Lewiston

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