Altona town council has said "no" to the idea of allowing residents to own livestock in town. The issue was raised by someone who wanted to move into the community and was inquiring whether they could keep some chickens on their property.

"We took a look at our animal control bylaws and they state livestock is only permitted within an area zoned as agricultural. If not zoned agricultural an application must be made to keep livestock .... which involves a public hearing," said mayor Melvin Klassen.

Since a hearing would be required, Klassen said council felt that it was not in the best interests of the community to move forward with such a request.

"That becomes a complicated situation where a lot of money has to be invested to set up this hearing. We felt this just didn't meet our standard for urban living."

Altona administration made some inquiries of its neighbouring communities such as Winkler, Morden and Morris to determine what they were doing on the issue of urban livestock.

"They also do not allow it, and in fact, our CAO checked with communities in a neighbouring province and could not find an urban municipality that is allowing urban livestock," said Klassen.