A couple in southeast France has been taken to court by a neighbour who claims that their cockerel, Ricco, crows too loudly and too often.
Its owners, Alexia and Franck Charreton, who have lived in the commune of Nivolas-Vermelle (Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) for 25 years, got the cockerel in 2019.
But a neighbour who has lived nearby since 2021 has now said that the cockerel is too disruptive. The neighbour is calling for it to be removed, as well as asking for €4,500 in damages and interest from the couple.
A court in Bourgoin-Jallieu considered the case on May 13, and a decision is expected by July 4.
A major issue of concern hinges on the fact that the area is classified as ‘semi-urban’ by French statistics bureau INSEE, rather than open countryside.
This is because cockerel crowing has been legally permitted since 2021 as part of acceptable “sensory heritage” in open countryside in France. But the same does not apply to semi-urban spaces.
‘Owning a cockerel not a basic need’
The neighbour’s lawyer, Briac Moulin, has claimed that, by the INSEE definition of the “area in dispute” is semi-urban and part of the Lyon metropolitan outskirts. It is therefore “made to be lived in, it's not in the middle of nowhere”, he said.
“Sleeping is a basic need, owning a cockerel is not,” he said, adding that “having a cockerel in the city is abnormal”.
His client claims that Ricco crows “frequently” during the day, but also “‘early in the morning”, leaving her “unable to sleep”. She claims that the noise has even caused other neighbours to move away.
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‘Beautiful song’
Ricco's owners have denounced the neighbour’s claims as a “fantasy”, and said at the hearing that - in contrast - they have other neighbours who “appreciate” the cockerel’s “beautiful” song.
Ms Charreton said that the neighbour was guilty of “arriving in a place that has a certain identity [already established] and wanting to change everything”. She and her partner, who live in a converted barn on a farmyard, claim that their area is rural, despite its proximity to the urban outskirts.
The couple has launched a petition in a bid to gather neighbourhood support in their favour, and has also installed a webcam with a view to proving that Ricco is not disruptive in the early hours.
The petition has so far (at the time of writing) gathered nearly 34,000 signatures, and the webcam has allegedly shown that Ricco comes out at 08:30 in winter and 09:00 in summer.
The couple say that they have only counted his crowing for a maximum of “five to six times a day”.
The petition in favour of letting the couple keep Ricco has gathered almost 34,000 signaturesMesopinions.com / Screenshot
Rebellious cockerels
Ricco is not the first cockerel in France to face legal action from neighbours for “too-loud crowing”:
in 2019, Maurice the cockerel on the Ile-d’Oléron (Charente Maritime) hit international headlines and became a symbol of the struggle between rural and urban living; while Coco the cockerel in Margny-lès-Compiègne (Oise, Hauts-de-France) was also the subject of a petition and court case the same year.
Another case in 2022 saw a cockerel named Pitikok facing similar threats from a neighbour who owned a holiday home in Oursbelille, Hautes-Pyrénées. At the time, the cockerel owner’s lawyer said: “Once more, we have these ‘neo-rural’ people who come to the countryside, who barely like the natural sounds.”
Cockerels are not the only ones to face complaints; in recent years, rural areas have hit headlines due to neighbours complaining about countryside noises and issues including cowbells, cicadas, croaking frogs, morning church bells, and the smell of cows.
Some noises are restricted in the countryside, including incessant dog barking and the use of garden machinery at anti-social times, but other noises - particularly in very rural areas - are now legally protected as “sounds of the countryside”.
At the time, when bringing in a stronger law in 2024, then-Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said that “activities that existed before the complainant moved in [cannot be classified as] abnormal neighbourhood disturbances [in court]”.
