"Check out that hairy dude in the flowered shirt. He must be a tourist, photographing chickens!" Wrong. That would be me photographing tourists photographing chickens on Duval Street. I enjoy playing tourist downtown when I don't have Cheyenne along with me, though I'm not one. When Cheyenne comes along people tend to assume I live in Key West and ask directions.
It's chicken breeding season in Key West judging by the number of small birds circling round pecking the dirt these days and visitors like to stop and admire them. My wife has to keep reminding me that free range chickens are not normal urban residents in North America and I should not treat their presence among us as normal. Where they came from no one really seems to know, though there are theories. Some people say they originated as freedom loving fighting roosters which makes no sense to me as no one, not even Cuban renegades fight chickens. Another theory, still in the blame-the-Cubans camp, says that Cubans fleeing their island brought their household goods which included chickens which also sounds cracked to me as I try to imagine thousands of feathered refugees landing in Key West and setting up camp on the streets. Stranger things have happened.
The theory I prefer is that when Key West went through a dismal economic period in the 1960s with the draw down of the Navy and a general loss of economic direction, yard birds simply got loose and had nowhere much to go on this small island. And I dare say people had other things on their mind than paying for a municipal chicken catcher. Which sounds like a grotesque idea but in the recent boom years the city did hire a local barber by the name of Parra to catch the chickens and send them Up North to a mainland retirement (a whisper campaign suggested they were sent to extermination camps outside Homestead) but the protests were long and loud and Parra ended up selling more t-shirts than catching chickens as opponents moved and vandalized his traps. Key Weird in all it's glory.
It's chicken breeding season in Key West judging by the number of small birds circling round pecking the dirt these days and visitors like to stop and admire them. My wife has to keep reminding me that free range chickens are not normal urban residents in North America and I should not treat their presence among us as normal. Where they came from no one really seems to know, though there are theories. Some people say they originated as freedom loving fighting roosters which makes no sense to me as no one, not even Cuban renegades fight chickens. Another theory, still in the blame-the-Cubans camp, says that Cubans fleeing their island brought their household goods which included chickens which also sounds cracked to me as I try to imagine thousands of feathered refugees landing in Key West and setting up camp on the streets. Stranger things have happened.The theory I prefer is that when Key West went through a dismal economic period in the 1960s with the draw down of the Navy and a general loss of economic direction, yard birds simply got loose and had nowhere much to go on this small island. And I dare say people had other things on their mind than paying for a municipal chicken catcher. Which sounds like a grotesque idea but in the recent boom years the city did hire a local barber by the name of Parra to catch the chickens and send them Up North to a mainland retirement (a whisper campaign suggested they were sent to extermination camps outside Homestead) but the protests were long and loud and Parra ended up selling more t-shirts than catching chickens as opponents moved and vandalized his traps. Key Weird in all it's glory.So these days the chickens are tolerated and even protected, though in some sort of bizarre Depression Era type of ruling there is apparently an ordinance that the chickens may not be harmed unless you are going to cook and eat them. Protein of the last resort. Remember Key West went bust in the Great (20th century) Depression so hard times were familiar around here once and shall be again soon no doubt if our national economy fails to produce meaningful employment. And thus it is we hope the chickens will keep bringing tourists to town to gawk and cluck and look sympathetic, whatever reason the chickens are here.
1 comment:
I spent a few days at Key West and I thought the chickens, roosters and the chicks were the coolest thing. They each were so colorful and the morning wakeup wall throughout the day was awesome. As a tourist, I say leave them alone, they are a great addition to the ambiance to the island. On the other hand what was offensive was the smell of garbage, commercial and residentional. Start recycling!
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