{"id":1316679,"date":"2019-11-13T17:18:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T00:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990756"},"modified":"2019-11-14T07:28:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T14:28:16","slug":"rabbit-restriction-in-carbondale-farmers-crosshairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rabbit-restriction-in-carbondale-farmers-crosshairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbit restriction in Carbondale farmer\u2019s crosshairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Matt Kennedy holds two baby rabbits at his house in Carbondale.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Matt Kennedy knows he has too many rabbits.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s quarter-acre Carbondale lot has pens housing dozens of rabbits. He also has a greenhouse, gardens, beehives, and coops for poultry.<\/p>\n

But when Kennedy, a chef and entrepreneur, started his urban farm and began raising rabbits over a year ago, no one had told him about an old rule in Carbondale\u2019s code that limits households to three rabbits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to demonstrate sustainability through rabbits,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cRabbits happen to be the most sustainable meat source on the entire planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Matt Kennedy and his daughter Aberdeen hold two of their rabbits in the backyard of their home in Carbondale.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

After being cited for too many rabbits, Kennedy wants to start a conversation about urban farming, and, hopefully, find a way to continue his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started the project I did not know there was a limitation,\u201d Kennedy said. He found out when code enforcement gave him the ticket.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year ago, Kennedy had a fox kill three rabbits. He discovered it in the morning, but because he had to work in Aspen, he left the bodies on top of his compost bin. That triggered a complaint from a neighbor for violating another portion of Carbondale\u2019s code.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t my intention to offend anyone,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

Kennedy worked late that night and said he went straight to bed when he got home. The next morning, he had a note from code enforcement for violating the rabbit limitation.<\/p>\n

Chapter 7, Article 6 of Carbondale\u2019s municipal code states: \u201cNo rabbits in excess of three shall be kept by any one household within the town limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Matt Kennedy walks out of the greenhouse located in the backyard of his home in Carbondale.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

That part of the code dates back to 1948, and was updated in 1972 and again in 2015, but it\u2019s unclear if the number of rabbits has been adjusted.<\/p>\n

When he went to the town for business license, his application specified that he\u2019d be raising rabbits for meat.<\/p>\n

He wishes someone might have directed him to the rabbit ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just as guilty for not going looking for it, but I didn\u2019t know about (the ordinance),\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

The violation doesn\u2019t have any fine specified, and Kennedy\u2019s case hasn\u2019t been heard in municipal court.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Matt Kennedy talks about the number of rabbits he owns.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Carbondale board of trustees agreed to consider changing the rabbit ordinance, but hasn\u2019t set a date to discuss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board agreed to discuss that,\u201d Carbondale Mayor Dan Richardson said. \u201cWe have not set an agenda for that yet, but we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Kennedy holds two baby rabbits at his house in Carbondale.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Buy Photo Matt Kennedy knows he has too many rabbits. Kennedy\u2019s quarter-acre Carbondale lot has pens housing dozens of rabbits. He also has a greenhouse, gardens, beehives, and coops for poultry. But when Kennedy, a chef and entrepreneur, started his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 13:27:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316687,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316679\/revisions\/1316687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}