Colin the Cockerel Given ASBO

There have been a number of reported cases of Cockerel owners being issued with ASBO’s for noise violations. Most recently the Barton family, who have a rural home in East Hampshire, were served with a noise abatement order after Colin, their cockerel, was deemed to be a nuisance and to be annoying neighbours with his early morning wake-up calls. The Bartons run a smallholding on nine acres of land with five horses, two dogs, two rabbits, a hamster and nine chickens, as well as the noisy cockerel.

Mrs Barton was quoted as saying:

‘What else can we do?

‘We live in the country and cockerels crow and cows moo. It’s like moving next to a railway station and complaining about the trains. It’s crazy.’

Colin has been found guilty of regularly crowing before 6am in the morning.

In 2006 a cockerel called Charlie, in the Borders area of Scotland was found guilty of loud crowing in the early hours of the morning and his owner prosecuted. The cockerel lived with goats, geese, dogs and ducks on the outskirts of the village of Selkirk. A local Bed & breakfast owner apparently lodged the complaint, yet residents just up the road said they had no problem with the cockerel and thought his crowing was a pleasant country sound. The case was eventually deferred and the owner told to move the cockerel to another field, further away from the other residents, with the end result being a deal was struck where by Charlie has to abide by a curfew and is locked away in a light proof coop until a set time in the morning.

In 2008 a chicken owner was given an ASBO after his cockerels were found to be keeping neighbours awake, however the case was slightly different in that 80 birds were being kept in the back yard of a shop in Yeovil, and not in a rural, smallholding environment. He was ordered to get rid of the chickens and had to pay £7,500 in fines and costs and banned from keeping further chickens or livestock.

Whilst each case is different and must be looked at for the individual characteristics of the situation, it does appear that livestock are no longer immune to laws and regulations brought in to control human behaviour.