Roswell chicken fight gets postponed

The threatened eviction of Henrietta, RooRoo, Red Man and 10 other chickens from their Roswell home has been postponed until May.

Their owner, Andrew Wordes, and the former Georgia governor representing Wordes won a reprieve Thursday from a Roswell judge.

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Phil Skinner / pskinner@ajc.com

Andrew Wordes (left) and his attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes, talk outside the courtroom at Roswell City Hall. Wordes’ supporters (back) wore yellow hats and shirts to the hearing.

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“The government can’t bring AIG down, but they can go after chickens in the backyard,” said Roy Barnes, Wordes’ attorney. “And that’s what this is all about.”

Roswell zoning code officials cited Wordes last month for raising chickens in a residential area. Wordes insists his birds are pets. City zoning officials say that’s a crock. Chickens aren’t dogs, they argue.

So far, none of Wordes’ neighbors has complained about the hens on his 1-acre lot.

Roswell Municipal Court Judge Maurice H. Hilliard Jr. delayed a hearing on the chicken controversy to give the city time to scratch and peck at Barnes’s legal argument.

Barnes argues that the Roswell’s zoning codes do not explicitly bar Wordes from raising chickens in his backyard, so his client can keep them.

Wordes started raising chickens in the backyard of his Alpine Drive home about four years ago. They roost in cages and stay inside his fenced yard. Wordes said he once paid a veterinarian $200 to heal one of his fowl friends.

“The whole thing is ridiculous,” said Wordes. “If the city of Roswell doesn’t look good, they brought it on themselves.”

Wordes said he picked Barnes not just because of his legal and political clout, but because the former guv raises some fowl too.

“I’m a chicken man,” said Barnes, who sported a red button with the words “I love” above a picture of a chicken.

Many Wordes supporters — about 40 in all — wore the same button and dressed in yellow to show their support for the chicken man.