A Maine man who was born without eyes, parts of his brain and right lung, and whose heart is on the wrong side of his body, won a legal battle to keep six chickens for emotional support.
C-Jay Martin, 25, of Bangor, was born blind with a bilateral cleft palate and cleft lip, missing a third of his brain and half of his right lung and with his heart on the right side of his chest, the Bangor Daily News reported. . .
Martin, who also has autism, epilepsy and ADHD, began developing anxiety and depression around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the outlet.
His mother, Amy Martin, this year decided to give him six backyard chickens from a Facebook group to help him deal with his emotional problems.
“During COVID, C-Jay started having problems because he’s very social, we lost all our activities and no one came,” Martin told the media outlet. “For the last two years, he didn’t talk to anyone and he was very withdrawn.”
C-Jay Martin will be able to keep his six emotional support chickens after the family won an appeal from a local court. Fox Bangor
She discovered that chickens were popular emotional support animals during the pandemic and that their “chatter” could provide C-Jay with comforting background noise, the Washington Post reported.
She also learned that chickens are gentle creatures that pose no danger to her son.
“Some of them are really cute,” Martin told the newspaper.
So he got C-Jay’s doctor to prescribe him an emotional support animal, but the family ran into a problem because Bangor has an ordinance that prohibits keeping birds in the city.
C-Jay Martin was born blind with a bilateral cleft palate and cleft lip, and was missing a third of his brain and half of his right lung. Fox Bangor C-Jay and his mother, Amy Martin, feed one of his chickens. Fox Bangor
Their only option was to obtain an exception, but that turned out to be no easy task.
Department of Housing and Urban Development officials told him to apply to the Bangor Board of Appeals.
“I didn’t intend to file an appeal,” he told the Washington Post. “We don’t buy chickens to be able to sell eggs. “This is to accommodate a disability, so the process should be different.”
Meanwhile, his son joined his feathered friends.
He named them Stella, Salty, Popcorn, Cheeks and Pepper.
He is still deciding how to name the sixth, according to the outlet.
Chickens have been found to be good emotional support animals during the pandemic. Fox Bangor
“He fell in love with them,” Martin said, adding that C-Jay now volunteers at a local church, a food bank and the Ronald McDonald House. “He has more reasons to go out. He gets very excited.”
She then decided to file a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, alleging that the city was discriminating against her son by not giving him an exemption to the no-chicken rule.
But the commission found no evidence of discrimination, so Martin filed an application with the Bangor Board of Appeals.
Seven people spoke during a recent hearing, including five who urged the board to allow the family to keep the chickens.
“As a parent, I know how fervently Amy cares for C-Jay and this is a great way for him to feel supported socially and emotionally,” Imke Jandreau said, the Bangor Daily News reported.
“They are not a nuisance, we do not hear them, we do not see them, and we as neighbors would never have known that there were chickens in the backyard,” the neighbor added.
The two people who opposed the request said they were concerned that allowing chickens in Bangor would bring rats to the neighborhood or encourage other people to get chickens, too.
Amy Martin claimed the city was discriminating against her son by not giving him an exemption to the no-chicken rule. Fox Bangor
Jeff Wallace, Bangor’s code enforcement director, said the city had not received any complaints about the Sept. 25 chickens.
He said he doesn’t believe the birds attracted rats to his neighborhood because rodents have been found in other areas where there are no chickens.
Ultimately, the five-member board voted in favor of Martin’s request.
“It was a resounding support,” Wallace told the Washington Post, adding that he believed media coverage and community support influenced the outcome.
The elated mother expressed her gratitude to her neighbors and hopes her family’s story will make it easier for others in a similar situation to deal with the bureaucracy.
“When we fight for something, we fight for everyone,” Martin told the newspaper, adding that two days after the hearing, “we got our first egg.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn