INSIDE: Tour de Valley unforgettable experience for local cops
Pg. 3
T H U R S D A Y
October 10, 2013
16 N E W S ,
SPORTS,
WEATHER
&
A Hardy soul
E N T E R T A I N M E N T abbotsfordtimes.com
What the cluck? Flawed logic used in banning of urban backyard chicken coops ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
A
bbotsford residents who want to keep urban backyard chickens are crying ‘fowl’ after the city justified banning the birds by raising the spectre of the avian flu. Leslie Stettler and Tanya Buskell have been pressing Abbotsford to introduce a pilot project allowing residents to raise small flocks in residential gardens. But council, with the exception of Coun. Bill MacGregor, voted down the idea of a new bylaw on Monday, saying the risk of avian flu is too great to Abbotsford’s large feather industry. Howe v e r, t h e c h i c k e n enthusiasts and a poultry expert argue backyard flocks don’t increase the risk of the
virus to commercial egg and meat producers. Coun. Patricia Ross referenced the avian flu epidemic in the Fraser Valley in 2004 when approximately 17 million birds had to be culled. “It’s too big a risk,” said Ross. However, Stettler and Buskell say that there’s no evidence to suggest that a small number of birds in an urban lot increases the risk of avian flu to commercial producers located on farms in the agricultural land reserve (ALR). What’s more, residents on small farms within the ALR are allowed to keep chickens and they are often located right next to large commercial producers, said Stettler. see CHICKENS, page A4
– SUBMITTED
Ryan Curr, pictured above with his wife, Nicola, snapped a photo of his plane and an approaching fire engine, after being forced to make an emergency belly landing at the Abbotsford airport on Friday, when his landing gear failed.
Frightful flight ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
I
t was only as the plane descended towards the runway for its emergency landing at the Abbotsford Airport that pilot Ryan Curr’s stomach sank. Curr, 31, was forced to make a dramatic belly landing on Friday at 4 p.m. after his Piper aircraft’s landing gear system failed to deploy.
Training pays off as pilot forced to make crash landing at Abbotsford airport The Langley man, who has 11 years of experience as a recreational pilot, had been flying circles for an hour during a flight from Pitt Meadows to Chilliwack trying to troubleshoot the problem and dislodge the jammed wheels. Curr realized he was out of options
when the emergency release system, used as a last resort, failed to jettison the wheels. “I called the Abbotsford tower and spoke with the controller,” said Curr. see PLANE, page A6
– ROCHELLE BAKER/TIME
Abbotsford residents Leslie Stettler, left, and Tanya Buskell are dismayed that Abbotsford city council is incorrectly raising the spectre of the avian flu as the reason to ban urban backyard chickens.
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