Hens’ Owners Have 90 Days to Achieve Coop-eration

Henny and Penny, two little red hens accused of causing a mighty ruckus each morning, have 90 days to cut their clucking.

The city’s Planning Commission Monday night gave the hens’ owners three months to get their pets to quiet down and appease neighbors who complain of loud noise and swarms of flies.

For about a year and a half, the Larijani family of Hendrix Avenue has raised the hens in a backyard chicken coop.

Based on neighbors’ complaints about the barnyard fowl, the city denied the Larijanis’ request for a farm animal permit last fall. The family appealed to the Planning Commission.

With Monday’s 4-1 vote, commissioners gave the hens a second chance--at least temporarily.

They ordered the Larijanis to reduce the noise by moving the chicken coop to another part of their backyard and said the family should develop light and sound controls on the coop.

“I’m always interested in neighbors getting along,” Planning Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter said. “Given a trial run, maybe something can be worked out between neighbors.”

At the end of the birds’ 90-day probation, the Planning Commission will hear from neighbors to determine whether the birds can stay.

At the meeting, Homa Larijani pointed to his wife, Margaret, and said Henny and Penny had been given to him as a birthday present.

“It’s all her fault,” he joked.

But Larijani was serious in professing his affection for the feathered duo and said he was agreeable to finding a way to please angry neighbors.

“I have two dogs, a finch . . . but my two hens are up in the air,” he said.

Joe Birg, who lives next to the Larijanis, said the controversy over Henny and Penny has put a strain on neighborly relations.

“We and our overnight guests have been constantly awakened by chicken noises,” Birg said, adding that members of the two families “still wave to each other when we go by. I hope that continues.”

Typically, the city receives 10 to 12 requests for farm animal permits each year, Michael Hines, a code compliance officer, said before Monday night’s meeting. Residents need the permits to keep animals like horses, poultry, pigeons and rabbits.

Most requests for the farm permits are approved, but when neighbors complain the city listens, Hines said.

“People don’t generally dislike the animals,” Hines said. “It’s the problem of noise, odor and flies that go with [them].”

Planning Commissioner Forrest Frields, who cast the dissenting vote against Henny and Penny’s trial run, said that the flap over the hens recalled the city’s battle 10 years ago with the miniature horse Ragtime.

The city became saddled with controversy when officials decided to take Ragtime’s owner to court to have the horse booted out of its Shady Brook Drive home.

Saying the 29-inch-tall horse was livestock, officials waged a three-year losing battle with Ragtime. Eventually, they rewrote the codes on domestic pets and livestock to gain better control over Thousand Oaks’ animal population.

“I’d like to have chickens myself,” Frields said before Monday’s meeting. “I have a garden area that would be absolutely perfect. . . . But they woke up the neighbors. They could be noisy.”

Judging from the way Ragtime’s career has taken flight, Henny and Penny could still have a bright future.

Ragtime, who made worldwide headlines during his dispute with city officials, will soon gallop across the silver screen.

The hoofed actor is the subject of “The Abduction of Ragtime,” an independent feature film now being shot in rural Ventura County.