Judge allows Vancouver woman to keep guinea fowl for 'joy of companionship'

Arielle Reid decided to buy a pair of guinea fowl chicks shortly after she moved to Vancouver from Oregon in 2021. The birds were a happy reminder of time she'd spent in East Africa and childhood visits to her father's family in Jamaica.

In a decision that highlights the blurry distinctions between exotic birds and domestic fowl, a B.C. judge has ruled in favour of a woman who kept guinea fowl in her Vancouver backyard.

Arielle Reid decided to buy a pair of guinea fowl chicks shortly after she moved to Vancouver from Oregon in 2021. The birds were a happy reminder of time she'd spent in East Africa and childhood visits to her father's family in Jamaica.

But neighbours complained to the city, saying the birds were noisy. The matter landed in court after a visit from a bylaw officer who told Reid she was not allowed to keep the birds.

In court, the city argued Reid was violating a city bylaw that prohibits people keeping fowl or poultry other than chickens on their property.

Reid, however, challenged the city's interpretation, citing another bylaw that allows residents to keep up to 12 exotic birds as pets.

In his reasons for judgment, Judicial Justice Zahid Makhdoom wrote that Reid kept the guinea fowl "for the pure pleasure of their proximity," not for eggs or meat. He also noted that the reference to fowls in the bylaw was not reason enough to prohibit guinea fowl as pets.