Rooster Hunting
I need a few things to get a good night’s sleep.
- * Children who sleep through the night.
- * To drift off before my snoring husband.
- * No cackoling roosters.
On a moral scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being completely immoral and 10 being Jesus-like goodness - just how immoral would it be to hunt the neighbor’s roosters in for my Thanksgiving feast?
Did you know it’s a total myth that roosters crow in the early morning. They actually cackol all night long, all morning long, in the afternoon - well, they never stop really.
I live in a residential neighborhood. Why must my neighbors keep roosters in their yards? To my knowledge they have no chickens for the roosters to impregnate - so what is the deal? Maybe I should call animal control and have them impounded for being in city limits? Where would that lie on a moral scale of 1 to 10?
Here’s my Thanksgiving wish - that they eat their own roosters for Thanksgiving - giving silence back to my night. Maybe they are just so frugal they grow their own turkey. It could happen.
Tags: morality, roosters, so sioux me, Thanksgiving, tracee siouxRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Fabulous Coffee Break, Fabulously Cheap
17 opinions for Rooster Hunting
Violet
Nov 21, 2007 at 4:13 am
I always try to talk to my neighbors about stuff before involving the authorities.
I tried to nicely talk to one neighbor (twice) about their dog’s constant barking. She told me her dog had the right to bark all day as long as it was between the hours of 9-10. (The right? Uh, your dog has no rights, cause it’s not like a real person.)
I printed out the real law (no barking ever, after three visits from animal control, you lose your animal.) Haven’t heard it’s annoying little bark since.
Tracee
Nov 21, 2007 at 8:32 am
What did she do have it’s vocal chords removed? How did she get it to stop barking?
See, that’s the problem. I will likely do nothing, except lie awake listening to roosters crow.
I actually am hoping they kill it today and eat it tomorrow.
Dinheiro Internet - Blog de Dinheiro » Rooster Hunting
Nov 21, 2007 at 9:21 am
[…] Nerdcore wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerpt [IMG rooster.jpg]I need a few things to get a good night’s sleep. * Children who sleep through the night. * To drift off before my snoring husband. * No cackoling roosters. On a moral scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being completely immoral and 10 being Jesus-like goodness - just how immoral would it be to hunt the neighbor’s roosters in for my Thanksgiving feast? Did you know it’s a total myth that roosters crow in the early morning. They actually cackol all night long, all morning long, in the a […]
Violet
Nov 21, 2007 at 10:26 am
I left a note for one and he came over and apologized and said they were working on training (it was a new puppy). Still barks occasionally, but I can live with occasional.
Second neighbor (the one who told me her dog had rights) would just leave her dog in the backyard and it got lonely and bored. I believe they take it to doggy day care now. Honestly, I haven’t heard it since.
But I don’t think there are any rooster trainers or day cares out there. Have you tried earplugs?
Tracee
Nov 21, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Yes, but only when sleep training the baby.
Ba dam bam. (I’m going to get hate mail for that for sure.)
I can’t really wear ear plugs all night, what if the baby cries? J and Ainsley both sleep through it. No mommy radar.
Tracee
Nov 23, 2007 at 7:19 am
The damn things lived through Thanksgiving. And were seen “free range” running through my yard this morning. Yes, I was up - the roosters were crowing!
mike
Feb 13, 2008 at 9:03 pm
wtf are you all talking about? I found this link while searching for something else but had to comment. Is this some kind of chicken website?
Roosterman
Mar 13, 2008 at 12:17 pm
If (and only if) the rooster keepers are in violation of the zoning laws, then it’s perfectly fair for you to insist that the birds must go. If you bought a home in a “nonlivestock” zone, you have every right to expect it to remain so.
HOWEVER…. If you moved into a livestock zoned neighborhood, it’s your own fault. Such zones exist precisely because livestock & poultry hobbyists DON’T want conflicts with people like you and we DO have a right to live our way of life SOMEWHERE after all.
Some of us were born and raised in livestock areas (and choose, as adults, to stay), precisely because of the livestock zoning. Others went to considerable trouble and expense to move into a livestock area so they could… (wait for it) have livestock. It is completely unfair for newcomers to move into such places and then start hassling the livestock keepers about rooster crowing, donkey braying, the smell of horse manure, etc. You knew what you were moving into.
So… have some ethics: DO NOT move into a livestock zoned neighborhood and then expect other residents to abandon their livestock hobby just because *YOU* have arrived! Choose to live in a non-livestock area instead. That’s what zoning laws are for: so both groups can live the way they wish, in peace.
McQuillock
Mar 13, 2008 at 12:37 pm
If (and only if) the rooster keepers are in violation of the zoning laws, then you have every right to insist that the birds go. You bought a home in a “nonlivestock” zone, you have a right to expect it to stay that way.
HOWEVER…. if you live in a livestock zoned neighborhood, then before you start complaining, consider this: the reason why livestock zoning exists is because there are plenty of people who LIKE backyard poultry and livestock. Some (such as certain friends of mine) have gone to considerable trouble and expense to move to livestock zones, while others (including myself) grew up in such areas and elected to return as adults so we could raise our kids around livestock as we were.
Simply put: We live there BECAUSE of the livestock zoning; we have ordered our whole lives around our trust that the livestock zoning rules would be upheld. Therefore, it is totally unethical for newcomers to move into such an area and demand that everyone else give up their way of life just because *they* have now arrived! If that describes you, your only ethical option is to move elsewhere. After all, that’s what zoning laws are for — so both groups of people can live as they wish without bothering each other.
Tracee
Mar 13, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I see your point Rooster folks and thanks for the info. I’ve since moved - before I had to kill that damn bird.
It was a neighborhood, so it should have been a no-rooster zone. But, I live in Texas so who knows.
1. I don’t care if you keep a goat in your yard next door, keep 10 chickens, have 5 dogs and 3 cats - but, roosters CROW loudly in the middle of the night. It’s unneighborly to keep a rooster in a residential neighborhood - what do you need one for anyway?
2. I wasn’t the new neighbor. The rooster was new. I lived there for 3 years before that bird started giving me insomnia.
Gladly I have moved to a different neighborhood. I hope you also live in peace on your farm.
McQuillock
Mar 14, 2008 at 1:37 pm
“… roosters CROW loudly in the middle of the night. It’s unneighborly to keep a rooster in a residential neighborhood - what do you need one for anyway?”
Because I LIKE roosters. And I like the sound at dawn (and btw they won’t crow at night if the lights are all turned off. Control light pollution and the roosters will sleep a lot later.) I love jogging through the neighborhood at dawn and hearing various neighborhood roosters crowing along my route. It’s fun.
Also, I like to hatch out my own chickens and of course you can’t breed chickens without the males. No roosters = no baby chicks.
So I make a point in living in a suburb (yes, it’s a suburb, with acre lots) where the zoning laws permit them, and where everyone understands upon moving there that all sorts of noisy critters (roosters, geese, donkeys, etc) are allowed.
As for being unneighborly — I reject that charge entirely. It’s unneighborly for a multimillionare to move into our town, knowing it to be a livestock zone, and start threatening everyone with lawsuits and trying to change the rules within a few weeks of moving in! We fulfilled our neighborly duties ENTIRELY by locating ourselves in the proper zone for what we want to do, he should have respected that. (And in the end, he did… shortly after I starting interceding for him - “love your enemies… pray for those who spitefully abuse you…” — to everyone’s shock he apologized and moved out.)
As to your former home… Unlike here in California, Texas is noted for its lax zoning, so the odds are high that the rooster was actually legal. The realtor who sold the house should have disclosed those facts to you at purchase though. Because, if an area is livestock zoned, it might just by chance be quiet the day you buy in but — precisely because it’s a livestock zone — some guy like me might move in 3 days or 3 years later and bring a rooster with him. Apparently, some realtors don’t tell their clients the full story re: zoning laws & restrictions in their eagerness to make the sale.
Tracee
Mar 14, 2008 at 7:41 pm
That Rooster was running through my yard regularly so because I live in Texas I was probably within my rights to shoot it.
Not that I have a gun. Poison maybe. (of course I’m kidding.) Perhaps people should remove the voice box of roosters if they live in neighborhoods - like the declaw cats and neuter dogs. I’m just thinking out loud here. Then they could repopulate without keeping the neighbors awake.
I think the rooster was retarded. It crowed in the middle of the day and every hour all night long.
Sorry your millionaire neighbor
Tracee
Mar 14, 2008 at 7:41 pm
sucked.
Sarah
Apr 12, 2008 at 9:13 am
My neighbor has a 6 roosters in his yard in a coupe. I know exactly how you feel about this situation Tracee! They are waking up my kids all night long. We cannot leave our windows open when we have nice weather, because they are driving us CRAZY! We have talked to our neighbor about this situation last Summer. He said he was going to get rid of them and then actually ended up getting more! I fee it is soooo disrespectful of him to have these things within a residential neighborhood! I’m ready to kill these things. Luckily we found that we have something on him about this…we have a DEED RESTRICTION on the properties that does not allow poultry on the property. The area is agriculturally zones, but the deed restriction overrides this. Ha-Ha! We have to sue him at this point. I can’t wait for the day we win!!
Dee
Jun 3, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I have to disagree with the person that said Roosters won’t crow if lights are off and it’s dark at night. I live in Pa. in a mobile home park(for 15 years). I have neighbors that moved in the park about a year and a half ago and last year they decided to raise chickens, about 20 feet from my home. They also had roosters that crow all hours of the day and night. Other newer neighbors followed suit and got roosters, chickens and Turkeys. The landowner told them they would have to get rid of them after I complained and my doctor told him how lack of sleep is affecting my health. The bottom line here is, it’s all well and fine if you like chickens and roosters but they belong on a farm not in the middle of a residential area. What ever happened to being courteous and respectful of your neighbors? I should have a right to my health and not have to put up with other’s farm animals in a mobile home park. There are public nuisance laws that deal with this issue and I for one am going to pursue them and the one called disturbing the peace. It’s pretty bad when you can’t live comfortably in your home.
Tracee Sioux
Jun 4, 2008 at 7:05 am
True That Dee.
I have more roosters living in my new residential neighborhood and they literally crow all day long. Light doesn’t prevent crowing.
I have new windows in this house so it’s not keeping me up at night. Thank goodness.
Debbi
Nov 13, 2008 at 11:57 am
It may be that your neighbor would like to eat his rooster himself, but can’t catch the little devil! I incubated eggs last June and found myself with 14 roosters; you should hear THEM at 5 a.m.! Anyway, I have finally figured out how to catch them and with food prices the way they are, we are definitely going to eat them. For step-by-step instructions on how to catch free-range roosters, direct your neighbor to my Nov. 13 entry on mylittlefarm.blogspot.com Happy sleeping!
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