AUGUSTA, Maine — The chicken debate that caused friction among Maine Republicans was smoothed over Tuesday after lawmakers advanced an amended plan to allow Mainers to have at least 12 chickens on private property.
The original measure from Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, sought to allow backyard chickens in cities and towns that ban them, but it became the subject of considerable attention and controversy online after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, used a social media post to criticize a provision that would have allowed people in most places to keep no more than 36 chickens at a time while adding coop requirements.
The first part of that was a mistake, according to the bill’s backers. Poirier filed an amendment Sunday that wiped out most of the original proposal and instead only prohibits towns and counties from preventing people from owning fewer than 12 chickens on residential property.
The Legislature’s agriculture committee voted unanimously to advance the amended proposal Tuesday. It was an undramatic end to an episode that exposed lingering divides within the Republican caucus in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and offered another example of Libby using her vast social media following to create controversy.
Libby made a viral social media post in February that singled out a transgender high school student in Maine who won a state track and field title. President Donald Trump got wind of the post and then called out Gov. Janet Mills during a White House event with governors, telling the Democrat he would pull Maine’s federal funding if the state does not change its policies allowing transgender girls in sports aligned with their gender identity.
Trump also launched various investigations into Maine and targeted the state and its universities, with the U.S. Department of Justice suing the state over transgender student-athlete policies. House Democrats voted to censure Libby in late February for her social media post, with House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, stripping Libby of her voting privileges after she refused to apologize. Libby asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case.
Last week, Libby used her Facebook page to highlight the chicken bill, starting the post that has since been shared more than 800 times with: “SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT REGULATE CHICKENS???” Without mentioning Poirier by name, Libby also called it “extra dumbfounding” that a Republican proposed the bill.
Libby was posing with a chicken in the photo. It prompted Maine lawmakers from both parties to post pictures with chickens and served as a reminder of already-existing tension between Libby and House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, who is cosponsoring Poirier’s measure.
“As you can see, I’m holding a chicken. Does it make me more credible because I’m holding a chicken?” Faulkingham shot back in a Facebook video. “Well, it shouldn’t, because just someone’s holding a chicken doesn’t mean they’re telling you the truth.”
Poirier told a reporter Tuesday that between her radio interviews on WVOM last week, “I think I’ve said most everything.” Poirier said last week that she was “just more disappointed that [Libby] didn’t take a moment to contact me about the bill first.
“She sits right behind me in the State House. She has all of my contact information,” Poirier said. “This could have been avoided had she taken that opportunity to reach out to me first.”
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this story.
