From letter to editor by Russell B. Rowe in the Charlottesville Daily Progress:

I read with great interest about the chicken problem in Albemarle County.
Let me give you some firsthand witness of living with chickens, as opposed to some “scientific study” or “snooty opinion” on living in a chicken environment, close quarters.

During the Great Depression, my four brothers, mama and daddy lived on Oregon Hill, a working class neighborhood in the heart of Richmond. Most of the houses were tied together, with a walk-through alley sometimes mixed in. My dad, I suppose to keep down trouble with neighbors, built a fence wherever we moved.

Click the link above for more, but the letter concludes:

What I’m trying to get to is we had at least seven people in that frame house with a fenced-in dirt backyard and 48 chickens, and I am 89 years old and in good health. All my brothers got in their three score and 10 years, plus.
The neighbors, in those days, never complained, and apparently the health department didn’t care, so scientific studies were not necessary.
My conclusion is: You have to have one rooster, and he is going to crow at dawn every day, but other than that, chickens never hurt anybody.

Expect some new ordinances to be considered at Richmond City Council in 2013.