A retired man has been ordered to get rid of his cockerel after neighbours in his French village complained that its crows were too loud and were stopping them from sleeping.
The cockerel, named Caruso, lives with his owner, François Avet, 74, in the 700-resident village of Sallenôves (Haute-Savoie), near Annecy.
But now, the bird has been ordered to be relocated by the end of March, after residents successfully complained to authorities about the ‘noise pollution’ coming from the man’s property.
Rural land
Mr Avet - a former agricultural teacher from a mountain countryside family - originally set up a small vegetable plot, and had rabbits, ducks, and chickens. But problems began soon after.
“The residents soon decided that the animals were too close to their homes,” he told FranceInfo. He moved the animals to the other side of the plot, but then decided to get a cockerel for his growing ‘farmyard’.
Mr Avet says that the cockerel is only doing what is natural to him. “He crows when the sun comes up, if a dog goes by, or if a chicken winks at him,” he said. “He's doing his job as a rooster!"
I’m “as rural as they come”, said Mr Avet. He said he had plans to “live peacefully with my animals…and let [my rooster and chickens] have chicks to show to my grandchildren who live in the village”.
“All the local children come to see my animals. We have a chat with their parents, and sometimes some of them go home with a salad. A garden is a meeting place,” he said.
However, discussions with some of his neighbours soon became less pleasant over the summer, he said. Mr Avet claimed: “One neighbour threatened me, saying that if I left my cockerel in the field, he'd do his job as a hunter.”
‘Communication problems and one-upmanship’
Residents went on to complain to the mairie about the cockerel, which led to the issue being considered at a mediation court.
In an email to the court officer, one neighbour in particular complained that it was impossible for local residents to spend a whole night without hearing Caruso crowing.
She claimed that “there were communication problems” with Mr Avet, and that “the neighbours who met him told me that he was so closed to discussion that I decided there would be no point in going to see him” before raising the action.
The complainant said: “I get the impression that there was ‘one-upmanship’ going on. We ask him to move his vegetable garden, he adds a cockerel. If there's a problem with his rooster, he adds a shed. If there's a problem with his shed, he parks his van in front of the plot.”
But Mr Avet has said he was very surprised by her allegation, and the fact that the complainant had “never even been to see me in person”. “I’d never even met her!”, he said.
‘Village losing its rural character’
Mediation is now set to be carried out in court, but the rooster has already been ordered to be removed, because the court has ruled that the “neighbours were there before the cockerel”.
Mr Avet said of the decision: “It hurts me so much... I can't afford to defend myself in court, nor can I afford a good lawyer, let alone lose a case.”
He added: "I'm well aware that my problem isn't important in terms of the state of the world. But everyday life and the future of the countryside are not trivial issues. My village is losing its rural character. It's selling its soul and its land to urban development.”
The ultimate future of the rooster and Mr Avet’s land are still uncertain, as the court continues to mediate on the issue.
‘Countryside heritage’
Mr Avet has said that his cockerel should be allowed to remain because he is part of the area’s ‘rural heritage’.
Since the law of January 29, 2021, the “sounds and smells” of the countryside have been considered to be part of the “nation's common heritage”, including “landscapes, air quality, living beings, and biodiversity”.
The law came into being after several disputes between residents and holiday homeowners in rural villages about the ‘noises and smells of the countryside’, including crowing cockerels, early-morning church bells, the smell of manure, and clanging cowbells.
Caruso is not the first cockerel to raise complaints among neighbours.
Maurice from l’Ile d’Oléron hit headlines around the world for a similar issue in 2019; while Coco in Margny-lès-Compiègne in the Oise (Hauts-de-France), and Pitikok in the Hautes-Pyrénées were two more famous cases in recent years.
Complaints about Saturnin, a cockerel from Villalbe, near Carcassonne, later prompted residents to gather more than 3,000 signatures in his favour, to “fight for the safeguarding of rural heritage”.
In 2019, one rural mayor even installed a sign in its main village square, which read: “Beware, you are in the countryside. Here, we have two [church] bells that ring often, roosters that crow early in the morning, and cow herds in the fields with bells around their necks…”
In February last year, another mayor even issued a decree in favour of noisy cockerels, and the issue even went all the way up to Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, who said in April 2023 that he wanted to create a law against ‘phoney lawsuits’ from urbanites who had moved to the countryside.
Read more: French crowing cockerel owner in court after neighbour’s complaint
Read more: Hamlet’s ‘noisy’ cockerel can continue crowing, rules French court
In the case of Caruso, the Sallenôves Mairie has stated: “We would like this situation to calm down and avoid any problems getting out of hand.
“While we are proud of the rural character of our village and everything that characterises it, including the crowing of a cockerel…the cockerel is only part of this dispute, and the situation must be assessed in the light of the overall context.”
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