Backyard hens will remain part of the residential neighbourhoods in Smiths Falls after council approved a permanent bylaw Monday, July 20, ending the municipality’s one-year pilot program.
The bylaw passed on a recorded vote, with Mayor Shawn Pankow and councillors Chris McGuire, Peter McKenna and Jennifer Miller voting in favour. Councillors Stephen Robinson and Dawn Quinn voted against the measure. Coun. Jay Brennan, who has opposed this from the start, was absent.
Before the vote, Robinson reiterated his opposition to allowing backyard hens in residential neighbourhoods.
The decision followed a lengthy discussion at committee of the whole on July 13, when Fire Chief Rick Chesebrough presented a report outlining three options: adopt a permanent bylaw, end the pilot program and prohibit backyard hens, or defer the decision to the next term of council. Staff recommended adopting the permanent bylaw.
Much of the discussion focused on whether the bylaw should include a mandatory registration system. Committee members also discussed a suggested $40 registration fee as a starting point. Chesebrough said registration would give the town a record of where backyard flocks are located and provide a mechanism to recover costs if enforcement or inspections became necessary.
“We’re simply more a matter of having a record of where they are and be prepared to deal with situations should they arise,” he said.
Brennan, Robinson and Quinn questioned making the pilot program permanent. Brennan argued chickens belong in rural areas rather than residential neighbourhoods and raised concerns about repeated reports of a fox in the Merrick Street area, suggesting backyard hens could be attracting predators.
Chesebrough said staff could not confirm whether the hens were responsible.
“We have no mechanism to trap the wild animal, and no agency will touch it unless the animal is deemed to be containing rabies or is of ill health,” he said.
As committee debated registration requirements, Brennan questioned whether the town would eventually require chickens to be microchipped.
“What’s next, goats?” he quipped.
Robinson and Quinn also maintained that chickens belong in rural rather than urban settings.
Pankow supported making the program permanent but favoured registration, saying it would help identify the owners of escaped birds and improve enforcement if complaints arise.
Miller questioned whether hens should be treated differently than dogs or cats, noting the town generally enforces animal licensing only when an issue is reported.
“I don’t see a big difference between the type of animal in this instance,” Miller said.
McGuire said backyard hens should be viewed as poultry rather than livestock and noted similar programs have operated successfully in municipalities across Canada.
Also included in the July 13 committee agenda package was a written submission from Liz Wheeler of Secondhand Stories, a local chicken sanctuary. The submission questioned whether the town had sufficient licensing, enforcement and veterinary resources to support a permanent program, raised concerns about public health, manure disposal and abandoned birds, and recommended strengthening the bylaw or extending the pilot before making it permanent. It also said the organization had recorded a 400 per cent increase in chicken surrender requests from Smiths Falls over the previous year based on its own tracking.
Following the recorded vote, council formally adopted By-law 10711-2026, permitting the keeping of backyard hens within the Town of Smiths Falls.
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