Man In Oregon Town Asks City To Pass Ban On ‘Fart Smells’ For Brilliant Reason

Peter Walters of Pendleton, Oregon is asking that his city council pass a gas ordinance — specifically, that the council ban the “offensive smell that plagues” his community.

In other words, Walters wants to ban the smell of farts.

However, Walters’ letter demanding that the city outlaw the smell of flatulence is not as unreasonable as it sounds — but not, perhaps, for the reason that a person may think.

The letter that addresses the city council was written in reaction to the council’s latest ruling against the “nuisance smell” of marijuana. As NBC reported at the time, the City of Pendleton updated its nuisance ordinances, which addresses such matters as barking dogs, to include the smell of marijuana. Despite the fact that recreational marijuana will actually officially be legal in Oregon beginning this July, users could be fined up to $500 if someone lodges a complaint that the smell of marijuana coming from the person’s private property is too strong.

There was some support for the ordinance, with one woman explaining that, “With small children in my home, I would definitely want my neighbors fined if I could smell the smell of marijuana from their home.”

But some find irony in the fact that the actual product is legal, but the byproduct of smoking it is not.

Peter Walters is certainly among those who find the ordinance to be strange and, perhaps, an overreach, but rather than start an outcry, Walters cleverly skewered the city council with his letter.

“It was with great relief Thursday when I read in the East Oregonian that Pendleton’s city council took the time to pass an amendment to the city’s nuisance ordinance banning marijuana odor. Clearly, there has been no issue of greater importance facing the city. Now that this important work has been completed I hope that the council will move on to restricting the other offensive smell that plagues our community: farts.”

“While farting may be legal in Oregon, many (including myself) are offended by the flatulent stench. Too often, homeowners and businesses fail to contain farts to their property, forcing the rest of us to put up with the smell. Some habitual farters argue that they need to fart for medical reasons but that doesn’t mean my kids should have to smell their farts. The city council should stop looking the other way and pretending not to notice.”

“I’m not even going to talk about intensity of farts. After all, as Pendleton police Chief Stuart Roberts put it: ‘It’s a very subjective standard in terms of whether people are offended by [smells] or not.'”

“This issue greatly affects me as I have a roommate whose recreational farting has been negatively affecting my quality of life for several months now. He claims that he is taking steps to mitigate the odor after I contacted the authorities. But unless our elected officials add farts to Pendleton’s nuisance code, it’s as if he who smelt it, dealt it. I call on our city council to set aside all other work and address this problem.”

Makes perfect sense, right? After all, both smoking marijuana and expelling gas are legal in Oregon, and so it seems only fair that if the smell of one legal substance is penalized, the other one should as well.

One Australian man would certainly be against the idea of a ban against farting. Click here to listen to the actual “fart symphony” one man put together — you won’t know whether to laugh or cry.

[Image via CBS News]