WEST BABYLON, N. Y. (WCBS 880) -- Some Long Island residents have signed a petition to stop the Town of Babylon from removing the chickens in their backyards.
Karin Capellan calls her 15 chickens her "ladies" and she spends a lot of time cleaning and caring for them in her West Babylon backyard.
"It's a tedious job, I'm out here at least once a day -- before I go to work or when I come home at night. I have fly traps all over. How we've made the coop, it's nearly impossible for a rodent or anything to get in there," said Capellan. "It's really not difficult to keep them, they don't need much space."
She's had the chickens for the past five years and shares eggs with her neighbors.
"They make too many eggs. Although we eat eggs, we give eggs to our dogs, there's no way that we can eat 14 eggs a day. We don't charge cause to me it's crazy. We have so many that come in," Capellan said.
But now only residents with large backyards will be able to have chickens thanks to a new ordinance requiring 100-feet between chickens and any house.
Capellan has started an online petition to save her chickens after learning her backyard isn't large enough to house her "ladies," including twins Ebony and Ivory, Tia and Tamara and Cardi C -- a play on rapper Cardi B's name.
"I can't even think about it. I actually just told my stepchildren yesterday what was going on and my stepdaughter, Angelina, said, 'What? No! They're our pets," Capellan said.
Capellan lives by the Southern State Parkway, which she said is noisier than the chickens.
"There's more noise from the traffic than even from the ladies when they start squawking that they've just laid an egg," Capellan said.
The Town of Babylon supervisor said he looks forward to hearing from the residents and plans on reviewing the code, but the town must also uphold the quality of life standards for non-chicken owners.