A Florida judge has reduced a family's $200,000 fine for keeping hens in the backyard to $100.

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Broward Circuit Judge Michele Towbin Singer reduced the fine, which began as a $100 fine and accumulated with $250 daily fines, to the original $100 Dec. 6 due to a Hollywood city ordinance stating the fine for keeping poultry in the city cannot exceed $100, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Thursday.

The Kohn family had argued the 17 chickens were "small domestic" pets allowable under the law, but the city said there are no exceptions to its no-poultry rule.

"It doesn't matter if you would like to have them as pets, they're still poultry and the code doesn't allow the keeping of poultry in a single-family residence that is not in an agricultural zone," city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said.

Steve Kohn said he got rid of the chickens in August to comply with a court order.

Kohn, an orthodox Jew with Moroccan and Syrian heritage, said he believes the city targeted him because of his Middle Eastern ancestry.

"This has nothing at all to do with chickens," Kohn said. "They don't want me and my kind here."