62 chickens in the backyard? NC Supreme Court to decide whether they’re poultry or pets

What makes an animal a pet?

That they come when called? The way they curl up and rest in your lap while you watch TV? Or that they’ll ride in the car with you — for a morning coffee or on trips to Hilton Head Island?

Mary Schroeder had this and more with what she considered to be her pets — a flock of 62 chickens.

They were kept in a backyard coop at her Waxhaw home, and Schroeder nurtured a deep bond with the birds. The Schroeders don’t eat their chickens but occasionally use their eggs to make omelets.

Each chicken had a name — several were christened by her young daughter, dubbed after family members or the birds’ unique flair.

The coop became a place of refuge. Schroeder would spend at least an hour with the chickens each day. Like any pet, Schroeder said, she could hold them in her low moments, listen to their soft purr and find herself at ease.

“I always said if I was having a bad day or a stressful day, I didn’t spend enough time out in the coop,” she said.

But ask the Oak Grove Farm Homeowners Association about Schroeder’s pets, and they say the birds were anything but.

They were poultry, the HOA alleged, according to court documents. And poultry on Schroeder’s property was a direct violation of the community’s legally binding rules. Lawyers for Oak Grove Farm Homeowners Association declined to comment for this story.

Neighbors were starting to complain, the HOA said. The chickens had to go, or the HOA would impose fines, court documents revealed. But Schroeder and her husband, Craig, refused — resulting in a whopping $31,500 in fines.

Schroeder and her husband sued their HOA and kickstarted a five-year legal battle that will soon be put to rest by the highest court in the state. On Tuesday, the North Carolina Supreme Court will hear arguments from both parties and decide once and for all — can these chickens be considered pets? Or are they just poultry?

The power of HOAs over homeowners has been a tense conversation across North Carolina. Homeowners can find themselves in legal trouble with their HOA over trees or types of windows. A 2023 Observer investigation highlighted how state rules make it easy for HOAs to foreclose on homeowners for the smallest of unpaid fines.

This legislative session, two bills aim to limit HOAs’ power and remove the possibility for homeowners to be fined for things such as parking their cars on the street, offering tutoring classes in their homes and more.

This case is bigger than her situation, Schroeder said.

“(This is) for all the people that want free use of land,” she said. “Maybe people who live in an HOA that are being harassed or that are having issues. Or people who just want to have backyard chickens.”

A flock that grew 12 fold

The first chicken Schroeder ever loved was named Pecker.

She named him after the way “he pecked all around the yard and on the ground.”

Her father, a mechanic in Fayette County, Ohio, worked on equipment for farmers. One day, through some sort of barter, Schroeder’s father came home with the bird. Little did he know he was igniting a love for chickens in his little girl.

Schroeder loved Pecker. She taught the bird tricks and played with him for hours. It was from that moment she knew she was destined to have chickens in her life.

When she and her husband began looking for a house in Union County in 2016, acreage was at the top of their wish list. They needed enough land to build a coop suitable for her chickens, a barn for horses and enough land for their dogs and cats to roam.

The Oak Grove Farm, a gated community in Waxhaw, provided just that. They toured three homes in the subdivision before deciding on a house with 17 acres, she said.

“This was our dream home. This was what we wanted,” Schroeder said. “We fell in love with the home. We fell in love with the neighborhood. We fell in love with the land.”

With each house they toured, they asked their Realtor to ensure with the HOA that chickens would be allowed.

And when the Schroeders first moved in, they were, in practice if not officially. The community’s legally binding rules state that other than horses, “No other animals, livestock, or poultry of any kind, shall be raised, bred, or kept on any lot except that dogs, cats, or other household pets may be kept provided that they (including horses) are not kept, bred, or maintained for any commercial purpose.”

But court records reveal that the HOA was lenient on this particular rule at the time and knew of other households that had chickens. But the numbers were small and complaints were nonexistent.

The Schroeders followed suit and started out with five hens — Laverne, Lizzie, Marie, Evie and Lucy. They were named after the middle names of the couple’s mothers and grandmothers.

The HOA was fine with the few hens initially, according to court documents. But problems arose over the next two years when their flock increased more than 12 fold.

‘Please remove poultry from property’

Complaints from neighbors about the smell and the sheer number of chickens pushed the HOA to take a stance, according to court documents. The poultry had to go.

The HOA sent a letter to all residents instructing them that chickens had to be removed. If not, fines would be imposed.

Everyone complied except the Schroeders.

Her chickens had never been a problem, Schroeder said. No one ever complained to her about a smell. And a neighbor once told her that if she never talked about the birds, she would’ve never known they were there.

Getting rid of them was out of the question.

“These are my pets. Why would I get rid of my pets?” she said. “Because you’re telling me that I could have them and then tell me I can’t have them. It didn’t make any sense to me.”

Schroeder’s refusal had consequences. The HOA began charging the couple $100 a day until the birds were removed.

Once the fees hit $31,500, Schroeder found a new home for more than half of her chickens and took the rest to stay with her friend in Lake Norman. She’d make the hour and a half drive every week to spend time with them.

The fines were unfair, Schroeder said. So she and her husband decided to sue.

Legal battle

The first case in Union County Superior Court was a jury trial.

The HOA sought to prove not only that the Schroeders’ chickens weren’t pets, but that the birds were being used for commercial use — another violation of the community’s rules.

Schroeder made a Facebook post in 2019 saying that she sold farm eggs and was looking for places to donate her extras.

After a two-day trial, the 12-person jury decided that Schroeder’s beloved chickens were not pets. The court found that the couple was indeed in violation of the HOA’s legally binding rules and therefore was required to pay the fines.

The Schroeders appealed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Judges there reversed the lower court’s decision, saying the HOA failed to bring a “scintilla” of evidence that Schroeder’s chickens were not household pets or were keeping the birds for commercial use.

In May 2024, the HOA appealed to the state Supreme Court. It will be heard on April 22.

Over the course of five years, the Schroeders have spent nearly $50,000 in legal fees. And although they moved out of the neighborhood, the HOA placed a lien on their home forcing them to pay the $31,500 fine.

‘I would never live in an HOA again’

The legal battle was only one part of the stress, Schroeder said. Outside of the courtroom, this dispute had driven a wedge between her family and the rest of the neighborhood.

Their daughter would get teased by kids on the bus, people would make comments to them as they walked their dogs and Schroeder said she was even confronted by a neighbor at a Wesley Chapel Harris Teeter.

“Why are you causing all this trouble? You’re such a B. Why can’t you just let people be happy?” she recalled the man yelling at her.

Schroeder was relying on anxiety and anti-depression medications to get through the day. Staying in Oak Grove Farm was becoming too much.

So in 2022, she and her husband decided to sell their home and head to the next town over — Monroe.

Their new backyard has become their own personal farm.

On their 33 acres, the clucks and crows from their flock of 60 chickens and two turkeys is constant. From her barrel seat by the coop Schroeder watches her cows and horses roam on one side of the yard. And she keeps a watchful eye on her donkey, sheep and goats on the other. Once her ducks and geese get tired of the pond, they make their way to land to mingle with their bird friends.

This is the life, Schroeder said. Living in a home that she built and on land that she owns without the watchful eye of an HOA. Here, she can do what she wants without asking for anyone’s permission.

Schroeder said she never expected her case to reach the state Supreme Court. But she hopes her story will act as a cautionary tale about the overbearing power of homeowner associations in the state.

“I would never live in an HOA again,” she said. “It could be the most perfect environment in the world, and if it had an HOA … no.”

This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.