Around my suburban NJ neighborhood, I've seen it in about a dozen yards in the past few weeks. I've been on a big lookout after I tried to remove some (taking lots of precautions), but still got rash on my arms & ankles. I hate that stuff.

Yes, Trebuchet, poison ivy is indeed one of God's most easy-to-hate creatures.  They should study the subject in seminaries: Whatever was God thinking when God created poison ivy?

My last bout was just last summer, after Little Dog took a romp in the further reaches of my parents' back yard, in south-eastern PA, then came into the house and leaped on my lap.  The good news was, there was no sign that it affected her at all.

A number of years ago, at a garden-supply store, I bought a spray, no doubt toxic, and sprayed it on poison ivy plants in my parents' back yard (I had more leisure then to attend to their gardening).  It worked very well: those things withered up rather quickly, and there was no awesome crater left behind.  Still, I rather hope there is another, less toxic but equally effective means for getting rid of poison ivy, without actually diving in and going mano-a-ramo with it.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!