Cockadoodledont: Court Orders Farmer To Keep Rooster Silent At Night So Neighbour Can Sleep

A farmer has been ordered to prevent his roosters crowing all through the night after a sleep-deprived neighbour took him to court.

The unnamed man, who lives next to a farm in the Austrian state of Tyrol, filed for an injunction against the farmer and his loud cockerels at the Tyrolean Regional Court in Innsbruck.

The court ruled with the plaintiff, stating that the roosters, of which there are believed to be two or three, were breaking the law by keeping the neighbour up at all hours.

The new site Heute reported that Ferdinand Kalchschmid, the lawyer representing the sleepless man, told the court that since May 2020, two or three roosters have kept his client awake at night.

The roosters roam freely on the farm, crowing long into the night, sometimes well past midnight, as well as into the early hours of the morning.

Master Eder, a rooster owned by Karin Pfeifer-Rockenfeller, 57, from the village of St. Antoniushof located in the Bad Kreuznach district of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was taken to court by her neighbour because of the rooster’s loud crowing.
(Newsflash)

To make matters worse, the crowing often agitates dogs on the farm which then break out into a chorus of barking throughout the night.

The defendant, a farmer who was not named, argued that the man knew what he was getting into when he decided to move into a house next to his farm.

The court ruled with the plaintiff, stating that he had a right to a good night’s sleep between 10pm and 6am.

The court added that it was the farmer’s responsibility to make sure his animals were not loud between these hours.

The judge said: “He [the farmer] can remove the chickens and the roosters, but he can also put them in a stable. He can of course keep the dogs in the house overnight.”

A similar case was heard earlier on in the year by a court in Germany where a complaint was filed about one specific rooster known as ‘Master Eder’.

Karin Pfeifer-Rockenfeller, 57, from the village of St. Antoniushof located in the Bad Kreuznach district of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was taken to court by her neighbour because of her rooster Master Eder’s loud crowing.
(Newsflash)

The complaint was handed to the Bad Sobernheim district court over a neighbourhood dispute in the small village of St Antoniushof in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate in April 2021.

The person who filed the case was not named but is believed to also be a neighbour living next to the rooster like the case in Austria.

According to Bild, Master Eder crows at around 3.45 am, which the plaintiff considers too loud for the hour and a disturbance of the peace.

The plaintiff said: “I want him [Meister Eder] to be locked up overnight.”

He said ideally it should be in a soundproof room where he will not disturb everyone else during the early hours of the day.

The plaintiff added that the crowing should not be audible between the hours of 8pm and 8am which extends to 9am on public holidays, according to Bild.

However, the rooster’s owner Karin Pfeifer-Rockenfeller, 57, cannot believe the lawsuit and claimed that there has always been a rooster in the village long before the neighbour moved in.

Karin Pfeifer-Rockenfeller, 57, from the village of St. Antoniushof located in the Bad Kreuznach district of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was taken to court by her neighbour because of her rooster Master Eder’s loud crowing.
(Newsflash)

Karin said: “Anyone looking for dead silence in the country is out of place. Here machines hum, animals make noises, the rooster crows.”

The strange case led to a counter-petition which already has around 32,000 supporters who wish to protect the rural cultural heritage and “rights of the roosters”.

Unlike in the Austrian case, the German court is yet to make its ruling on the case public.

It unclear if the defendant in Austria will appeal the ruling.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Peter Barker, Sub-Editor: Lee Bullen, Agency:  Newsflash

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