Europe 1 with AFP 5:42 p.m., April 28, 2022

The owner of a rooster from Oursbelille, a village in the Hautes-Pyrénées, was summoned to the Tarbes court in early June, after being sued by a neighbor, tired of hearing the bird sing.

The neighbor is asking for 6,000 euros in damages and 100 euros per day of delay from the date of a possible conviction.

The owner of a rooster from Oursbelille, a village in the Hautes-Pyrénées, was summoned to the Tarbes court in early June, after being sued by a neighbor, tired of hearing the bird sing.

"It all started in 2019. The owner of the neighboring house (...) who comes twice a year on vacation to Oursbelille, came to find me (...) to summon me to get rid of my rooster", said explained the owner of "Pitikok" to an AFP correspondent.

6,000 euros in damages claimed

“Once again, we have neo-rurals who come to the countryside, and who do not support, or little, sounds that are natural”, deplores his lawyer, Me Stéphane Jaffrain.

"There was a conciliation (...) but it was a failure since the only solution that Monsieur offers is that we get rid of our animal."

"It's out of the question!", insists the owner of the rooster.

The neighbor, who summoned her to the Tarbes court for "abnormal neighborhood disturbance", is asking for 6,000 euros in damages and 100 euros per day of delay from the date of a possible conviction.

A civil hearing is scheduled for June 7.

“For my client, it is a real suffering”, argues for his part the lawyer of this retiree, Me Anne Bacarat.

"He has cancer, heart problems, tinnitus and he wears a hearing aid," she adds.

Similar facts already studied by justice

In a similar case in 2019 on the island of Oléron, in Charente-Maritime, the Maurice rooster had been authorized by the courts to continue to sing.

A law, passed in January 2021, protects the sounds and smells characterizing natural spaces.

Ringing of bells, crowing of roosters or cicadas, croaking of frogs, quacking of ducks, but also the smell of horse manure or stables then entered the environmental code.