Youngstown couple want to keep their chickens in city for food, pets

YOUNGSTOWN

An East Side couple is asking city officials to allow them to keep their chickens – some that they eat and a couple they keep as pets.

The city’s planning commission met Tuesday to consider the request from Victor Rojas and Luz Sepulveda, who live on Stewart Street. A decision was postponed until next month to allow the city health department to inspect their home again.

An Oct. 27 inspection showed there were more than 40 chickens in the garage of the couple’s property in a residential neighborhood.

“It appeared the owner did have control of the chickens, and [they] were kept in a sanitary manner,” city Health Commissioner Erin Bishop wrote in a letter to the couple and the planning commission. “The number of chickens/roosters exceeds the health department’s” recommendation “to prevent a public health nuisance.”

That recommended number is eight.

Sepulveda said Tuesday the couple has nine chickens living in their basement – it’s too cold to have them in the garage – and she’d be willing to get rid of the two roosters to bring that number to seven.

“Two are pets, and the rest we eat,” she said. “We get eggs from them, too.”

Tara Cioffi, the health department’s environmental health director, will inspect the house Monday to determine how many chickens are there.

Read more about the matter in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.