Thursday, April 13, 2006
Key West Chickens Raise Bird Flu Fears
KEY WEST, Fla.—Tourists photograph them, and artists paint them. They peck and cluck in parking lots, backyards and alleys. And, yes, they cross the road, any time they please.
Key West is famous for its roaming chickens, but the birds could soon be cooped up. Worried about bird flu, City Commissioner Bill Verge wants the city to begin rounding up the island’s 2,000 to 3,000 chickens.
Some chicken lovers, however, are crying foul, dismissing the danger of avian flu.
Katha Sheehan likened a Key West without its chickens to “New Orleans without the jazz and San Francisco without the cable cars.”
Key West’s chicken history goes back to the mid-1800s, when birds were kept for food and cockfights. Over the years, the chickens were released or escaped, and the population grew on the two-by-four-mile island.
Some residents complain that the roosters crow at all times of the day, tear up lawns and defecate everywhere. In 2004, the city hired a chicken catcher to trap birds and take them to a mainland farm, but upset residents sabotaged the effort by freeing chickens, breaking traps and keeping the birds well-fed. The chicken catcher and the city parted ways after he had collected a little over 500 birds.
Now, however, the bird battle has a new source of urgency: avian flu.