A three-year-old autistic boy from Florida has been ordered by city council to give up his pet chickens that help him socialize better.
The DeBary City Council voted 3-2 to eliminate the trial program that allowed residents to have maximum three chickens in their backyards.
According to the parents of JJ Hart, the autistic child, the chickens helped him therapeutically. Last year, the doctors told the family to get JJ chickens to help him deal with his medical condition better.
Following this, Joe, JJ's father sought permission from the council to allow them to keep the chickens. After which the program was started.
"He's now doing amazing," J.J.'s mother, Ashleigh Hart, told the Orlando Sentinel. "He's now going to a new preschool, and he's able to communicate much better. And it all has to do with the chickens. He plays with them. He cuddles with them. And he runs around the yard with them. ... It's made a tremendous difference."
"A lot of people with autism have self-harming tendencies," Joe Hart told WOFL FOX 35. "J.J. used to pull his hair out and throw his head back to the ground. The chickens taught him to be calm."
However, Councilman Nick Koval, says that residential localities are not the right place for chickens. "It's unfortunate, and I sympathize," Koval told The Sentinel. "But we spend a lot of time and money establishing codes and ordinances for the protection of the citizens and taxpayers of this community. And I believe that they [chickens] belong in agricultural areas."
Mayor Bob Garcia was among the two elected officials who voted in favor to keep the chicken. "If we make laws that take away rights of individuals, especially children, those laws should be abolished," Garcia told WOFL. "We should be protecting the rights of individuals, not suppressing them."
The decision has come as a rude shock to the Hart family. They do not know what to do next. "We're really not sure what we're going to do now," Joe said. "He was doing so well with the chickens, and now they're telling us that we can't have them anymore." EH also said that the JJ has not been informed about the decision yet and he is "definitely not looking forward to it."
