09/09/2014 - updated 09/12/2014

Council refers rooster regulation to ordinance committee

The Town Council will revisit regulating roosters.

At their meeting Sept. 8, 2014, the council voted 6-1 to refer possible regulation of roosters to the ordinance subcommittee. Voting against the referral was Councilor Caitlin Jordan, who also opposed rooster regulation when the council considered it in 2011.

At that time, a draft amendment to the miscellaneous offenses ordinance would have prohibited owners of animals, including roosters, from allowing noises loud enough to disturb neighbors. It also required owners to keep the animals, already prohibited from straying into public ways, from wandering onto private property without permission.

After months of debate, however, the council decided in the spring of 2012 not to pursue regulation for the time being.

The issue resurfaced this summer when Joe Gajda, a resident of Farm Hill Road in the Elizabeth Park neighborhood, asked the town to consider banning roosters on small lots. "Our neighborhood has been forced to start the day at 5:30 a.m. when the roosters crow," wrote Gajda in an email, complaining about animals at the house next door. His email also complained of roosters attacking the hens he keeps in his back yard.

Similar complaints prompted the council to consider regulating roosters in 2010. Councilors at that time looked at regulation through zoning, but the Planning Board, after four workshops and two public hearings, instead recommended regulation by a nuisance or similar ordinance.

The council's decision Sept. 8 to "refer the issue of regulation of roosters through our ordinance" gives the ordinance committee flexibility, councilors agreed. "It's a noise issue, it's not a specific animal question," said Councilor Jamie Wagner, who said he himself had roosters as a child. "There's nothing inherently bad about roosters, but in proximity it can be a nuisance," he said.

Both Gajda and neighbors Crystal and Patrick Kennedy, owners of the roosters, spoke during a public comment period.

Gajda recounted the disturbances in his neighborhood where lots are smaller than a fifth of an acre. "Your neighbor's rooster crows and you feel it in your spine, it's horrible," Gajda said. Other nearby communities have ordinances that specifically prohibit roosters on small lots, he said, and he urged the council craft one for Cape Elizabeth.

Crystal Kennedy, Gadja's neighbor, said they have taken measures to appease the neighbors, such as clipping wings, giving some roosters away and ordering a quieting collar for their last remaining rooster. They want to be able to keep the rooster, which is as dear to them as any of their other family pets, she said. "We were hoping through this process we could teach our kids about community and compromise, but now it looks like we are teaching them about standing up for yourself, and for your rights," Kennedy said.