CockadoodleDOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!

[gategrrl]

 

One of my neighbors got a rooster over the weekend. The damned thing has been crowing NON STOP starting from 6am every morning and continuously during the day, taking breaks only to peck at food (I'm guessing).

Probably this neighbor got the effing rooster because (from what I've heard) they have had at least two puppies (or just one, I'm not sure) get hit by cars. What IS it with careless and stupid animal/pet owners?

And why a ROOSTER? Chickens, okay, see nothing wrong with chickens because they lay eggs, they'll eat bugs, they're not that bad. And they don't CROW. But nooo, neighbor has to get a rooster in a residential neighborhood.

I did call animal control, and at first the woman I spoke to on the other end was like, "But you know crowing is what roosters do, right?" I then had to point out to her that yes, I'm aware of the noises roosters make, but aren't there residential zoning laws, and aren't people who keep birds, like chickens, supposed to get one of those $130 Aviary permits in order to keep them? Huh? 

She then asked me if the rooster was under 100 feet from my house, and I told her I wasn't sure, but I WAS sure that the rooster had to be that close to at least two other houses adjacent to the property with the rooster on it.  She put me on hold for another five minutes after getting my zip code. She must have been checking to see if this really was a nonzoned livestock area. There are areas near here zoned for livestock (horses, etc) but not in this part of the Valley. I made the mistake of not having the neighbor's address handy (d'oh!) so I'm going to have to call back later with the address so they can "investigate", whatever that means, exactly. Damn it. I was on hold for about ten minutes the first time.

Honesty, the rooster doesn't bother me *too* much (I think roosters are pretty funny) but, my suburban farm-grown Guy is going batty. He grew up with hens and turkeys and a big garden. His town wasn't rural, but it was zoned for livestock where they lived, so it wasn't a huge deal. His dad got rid of his roosters (bought by mistake when they were chicks, I think) when neighbors complained.

What is this neighbor *thinking*? 

UPDATE:  I went into the backyard, and checked out the neighbor's back yard through a small opening in the fence, a really narrow view. There are three chickens there. Two are white, one is a rooster, and there's a brown bird there, too, that I think is also a hen. I'm calling Animal Control again.

Comments

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

Roosters can be mean too. My Dad owned one that attacked everyone in sight. I used to have to swing my pocketbook at it and kick it. Otherwise it went for blood. My Dad got rid of it after it attacked the little ones.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're territorial males, alright. Glad to hear your dad got rid of it. Thankfully these neighbors have the damned bird contained in a chicken wire coop, so they're not about to get out and attack the neighborhood kids.

However, they do also have a dog that's a pitbull that they often keep chained up on their driveway, so maybe it's so the dog won't tear them to peices. Hmm.

[khek.livejournal.com]

There's a rooster down the road from my parents. It's a working farm, so it has the right to be there. It's pretty far away, but there's not much between the houses, so you can hear it clearly when the wind is right. It crows all day long. We all think it's funny, but I'm not sure I'd think that if I lived next door to one.

Good luck.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Like I've said, honestly, the sound of it isn't really bothering *me* so much as my highly stressed out Guy, who has a lot of stuff going on at work right now, and is trying to launch a new company and go freelance. His nerves are shot, and the rooster, unfortunately, turned up at the wrong time and in the wrong place. The Guy is particularly sound sensitive to begin with...

I do think there's a principle involved, as well, though. This is not a farm area and if you're going to keep farm-stock on your suburban property, make goddamn sure you've got the required permits, and please don't get especially noisy, smelly animals. After all, people work, and not everyone wants to wake up at the crack of dawn (5:30am this morning!) to listen to a rooster crow!

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

That's getting rather agricultural. I mean, roosters AND chickens means eggs for sure, and it might mean a whole damn flock of chickens in the works.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what we can't figure out. If they want fresh eggs, sure, I have NO problem with that - hell, if that's what they were doing, I might even be interested in buying some (I've never had a truly farm fresh egg in my life) but the rooster?

And I'd understand if it was a 4-H club project: they do a lot of farm animal projects. I've *nothing* against that, either. But again, this isn't a rural area anymore, and roosters, although not nearly as annoying as someone who blasts their bass so that our windows rattle, are noise pollution.

I'd have objections if it were a dog barking all.day.long, too.

And there goes the rooster *again*. *sighs*

At least no one's tried to get a cow in here. AND I have to say, THESE neighbors, as annoying as they can be, at least they have their chickens contained in a coop.

Our other Wackadoo Neighbors (remember them?) they had three chickens also at one time - ugly, nasty, thin red-brown looking birds, too. Their birds were all over the place. One hung out next to our door, eyeing us as we left for the day one time. One got its throat ripped out by their dog (their son laughed about it) and the others "disappeared" and got lost. Uh huh.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

I think you actually have to have a rooster just to get eggs. My mom's unclear on the details, but they always kept chickens to have fresh eggs when she was a kid, and a rooster was always there. Chicken eggs from the store ARE definitely fertilized - I have a feeling without fertilization it would be just the white part.

Still, the noise is just kind of unreasonably for a neighborhood. It's not like areas where water is plentiful and houses have half-acre yards and bigger.