"I thought of that old joke, y’know, ... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, ‘Doc, uh, my brother’s crazy; he thinks he’s a chicken.’ And, uh, the doctor says, ‘Well, why don’t you turn him in?’ The guy says, ‘I would, but I need the eggs.’"

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We couldn’t help but think of Woody Allen in "Annie Hall" when we read that the town of New Paltz is weighing a change in its zoning law to allow chickens to be kept in residential areas.

An increasing number of people in this country have chickens for pets and for their eggs. For them, it’s no laughing matter.

There’s even a website dedicated to it (http://urbanchickens.org).

Please, town of New Paltz, and other places where it’s not too late to prevent it from happening to them, resist the temptation.

Look, we know, we’re mostly a rural area. Heck, that’s a big part of its appeal to many of us.

But within "the country," as city dwellers refer to pretty much anything north of Yonkers, there are places where you can raise what are commonly called "farm animals" and places where you can’t.

Call us spoil sports, but we’re not interested in living in a residential neighborhood where the folks next store have chickens and roosters clucking and crowing at all hours, often wandering around wherever they please.

Put another way, we’d prefer to wake up to an alarm clock at a pre-determined time, not a cock-a-doodle-doo at the crack of dawn or earlier. Continued...

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Yes, we know, people need the eggs. And given the inexpensive cost of purchasing mail-order chicks, it doesn’t take long to earn back your investment, both by using the eggs yourself or selling them to others.

But, as mentioned during a recent town meeting in New Paltz, not only is the noise an unwanted intrusion, having chickens in residential areas also could mean the arrival of hungry foxes and coyotes who don’t have to wait for a chicken to come off the barbecue to find it a delicacy.

If adopted, the New Paltz proposal might include rules for fencing-in the chickens, as well as limiting the number a resident could own. All well and good.

But then there’s this from New Paltz resident Lagusta Yearwood: "If you talk to anyone who works in any animal shelter in any municipality where chickens are kept, they will tell you that the minute this ordinance was passed, the shelters are full of well-meaning people who adopted the chickens and found out how much work it was, how much expense, how much getting up early ... and they immediately send them to animal shelters."

Countered town resident Tova Weitzman, "If the voice of many people in this community is for sustainability and the economics of the family finds that collecting eggs saves them some money instead of driving to the farms and buying there, it should be factored into the consideration."

Yes, it should be factored and seriously considered.

That said, we’re not swayed. This is one of those rare times when we feel obliged to declare, not in my backyard.

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