“Do you keep chickens in your back garden? Register them now or break the law”, Britons are warned by state media as new rules pulling back yard flocks into industrial bureaucracy that takes force today.
As difficult as it is to believe a Western government would use a flu-like virus to crack down on freedoms, the British government is nevertheless at it, and from today anyone harbouring unlicensed chickens on their property will be breaking the law.
People who have chickens in their garden and don’t comply with the mandatory register, the purpose of which is to allow “more effective surveillance”, risks “being fined or even imprisoned”.
Announced in the Spring, the rule change removes the old exemption for back yard flocks and smallholdings, which meant anyone keeping less than 50 birds — including chickens and ducks — would not need to note the government and could continue the ages-old practice of raising their own food unmolested.
But government concern over avian flu, even despite as the state broadcaster the BBC notes “a lack of recent reported cases in captive birds”, has pushed it to reduce the notifiable number of birds down to one.
The deadline to register with the Animal Plant Health Agency in England and Wales is October 1st, and December 1st in Scotland, and chicken keepers had been encouraged to get signed up early. As explained by the NFU, “Bird keepers will need to provide information, including their contact details, the location where birds are kept and details of the birds (species, number and what they are kept for).”
There are exemptions for birds like parrots, as long as they are never allowed outside.
It is stated that: “The register will also be used to identify all bird keepers in disease control zones, allowing for more effective surveillance.”
The BBC, Britain’s state broadcaster, warned the public through its Countryfile publication: “Do you keep chickens in your back garden? Register them now or break the law… failure to register your birds puts you at risk of a hefty fine – as much £2,500 – or even a short jail sentence.”
Public responses to the poultry crackdown have been mixed. The poultry industry is in favour of bringing backyard egg producers onto the national register, while some small keepers speaking to the British media have decried being put on a government list.
Some on social media have taken a sardonic view of proceedings, questioning whether the government would end up with a better picture of how many chickens there are in the country than they do undocumented migrants in the black economy.
