So, I've thought for a while that it would be cool to keep a few chickens in my back yard. They don't require too much space (as long as I keep their numbers to a reasonable level), and there are all sorts of food things I can use them for.
Being a responsible person, I checked the city ordinances to see if chickens were prohibited. Unfortunately, they are. But what really caught my eye was the language of the ordinance:
Except as provided within this title, no person may keep or slaughter within the city any cattle, cows, horses, swine, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, nonhuman primates or other livestock.
Cheyenne, WY City Code 6.08.020(A).
Seriously? Nonhuman primates? What makes this particularly remarkable, for you non-lawyer types, is that statutes that list things are usually construed so that if something later comes along that may or may not fall within the listed items, the courts will look at the things that are in the list to see if it belongs. So if a statute deals with "transportation vehicles, such as cars, busses, and motorcycles," that statute probably doesn't include passenger jets because the things listed are of a different type.
The funny thing about this list is that, other than "nonhuman primates," everything else you might expect to find at a farm. But I can't think of any farms I've seen that include baboons and lemurs. (Yes, lemurs are primates--a particular variety called "prosimians.")
Additionally, there appears to be a statute that would otherwise cover nonhuman primates:
No person shall own any wild animal or exotic pet within the city limits, except that this restriction does not apply to the keeping of small cagebirds or aquatic, amphibian or nonpoisonous reptilian animals or small rodents such as hamsters, guinea pigs or gerbils kept solely as pets; nor to any zoological garden, theatrical exhibit, circus, legally incorporated college, university or school.
Cheyenne, WY City Code 6.08.060. Now, call me crazy, but I would think that any nonhuman primate would qualify as "wild animal[s] or exotic pet[s]." While I've heard of people eating monkeys, I've never heard of anyone raising them as livestock.
Very odd.
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