Quite the debate broke out at High River Council on Mon. July 20, as each councillor weighed in with an opinion on residents being allowed to own backyard chickens and bees in High River.

But ultimately, with a 4-3 vote, Council approved administration to write up a policy that will allow residents to have chickens and beehives, under a license only, and with restrictions and limitations.

Councillor Dragan Brankovich spoke first, and quite passionately at that. He listed numerous reasons why he thinks urban hens and bees are a bad idea, saying there could be potential health risks, potential risks to animal shelters having to deal with neglected chickens, and the potential that bylaw officers would run into problems enforcing rules and regulations.

"In my opinion, acreages are far better suited environments for operations such as this," he says.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass was on the opposite side of the argument, saying there is no proof that backs up the claims that chickens and bees are a big risk to the public's health and safety.

"There's nothing dangerous about a chicken. Every sentence (from yesterday's Council meeting) started with 'potential risk.' There's potential risk for putting a T-shirt on, like where do we stop this?" he says. "Everything I read about it and all the comments I heard on the negative side, nothing was factual. There was absolutely nothing that showed facts as to how a backyard chicken is dangerous to public safety."

After receiving so much negative feedback from residents, he says it's sad we live in a society where people think that because they don't want something, no one else can have it either.

Councillor Bruce Masterman also spoke up during the Council meeting, saying the Town has "bigger fish to fry."

"We have a big job in this town still ahead of us, as we have the last two years, and that job is the recovery of this town," he says. "And if we're getting distracted and we have our bylaw people looking at chickens and bees rather than unsightly properties... if we're distracted then we're not looking at the recovery of High River."

Councillor Emile Blokland was also on the opposing side, while Councillor Peter Loran and Councillor Cathy Couey both said they don't see a problem with is as long as there are specific rules and regulations.