Singing every morning on the island of Oleron, the cock Maurice triggered the ire of the neighbors of its owner, Corinne Fesseau.

The criminal court in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, on Thursday ruled that the rooster Maurice could continue to sing, rejecting the complaint of neighbors who accused him of waking them at dawn, said Me Julien Papineau, defender of the owner of the volatile Corinne Fesseau.

"Maurice won (and) the plaintiffs will have to pay his owner 1,000 euros in damages," said Julien Papineau.