After a five-year pilot, City of Toronto staff are recommending an end to backyard hens due to “the considerable costs and resource impacts required to safely administer a City-wide program and the emerging concern of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).”
Toronto legalized backyard hens in some of its neighbourhoods in 2018.
Toronto city staff write the pilot had “limited uptake.”
The hens did not result in “any significant issues.”
People with existing hens will be allowed to keep them. Grandfathered owners are not allowed to have new hens.
Hamilton City Council debated urban hens in 2012, 2018, and 2020.