Livestock in the City

 Animals played a bigger role in the daily lives of Edmontonians 100 years ago.

A turkey in front of an Edmonton home
(courtesy of Edmonton Archives)

The relationship between people and domestic animals in Edmonton today stands in sharp contrast to 100 years ago, a time when humans lived and worked alongside what we would now call farm animals. Edmontonians kept horses for transportation, cows for milk, pigs to eat the table scraps, chickens for eggs and other livestock for food and clothing.

Conflict over free-roaming animals eating their way through vegetable gardens was not uncommon; however, it was usually settled in a civilized manner. As the city grew, Council passed bylaws to regulate or restrain animals large and small from running at large within the limits.

Backyard chicken coops are not a new idea. For several weeks in the spring of 1920, Norwood area residents reported chickens disappearing from their backyard coops overnight. Police detectives investigated a barn behind a house on the corner of Alberta Avenue and 88 Street and found 12 crates of chickens and turkeys, some of them dead.

The newspaper story quoted the Chief of Police who said, "The police garage, where the chickens are at present laying eggs for the city police force, is a fearful affray — looking like an undertaker’s morgue. There are many dead fellows held as evidence against the accused, and even these were claimed and unclaimed by the many industrious housewives who were out early this morning to recover and prove their losses. Many of them even brought two or three neighbours to swear identity."

The Alberta Humane Society, a forerunner of the SPCA began in Edmonton in 1904, and one of their purposes  was "to prevent the excessive beating or other inhuman treatment of horses, cattle, or other beasts."

Kindness to animals was taught in school, and children were encouraged to submit their thoughts to the newspaper. Twelve-year-old Raymond Hoff wrote, "All animals should be treated kindly, like you would want to be treated yourself. Some people are very careless with the way they use their animals … The man who uses his horse like that, instead of having a good horse will have a poor, shaggy one."

Original story posted by Gary Dick to an internal Edmonton website.