A ruckus has broken out over an allegedly rowdy Invercargill rooster whose fate is in the hands of a council committee.
Georgetown shop owner Alisa Cole says she got an email from the council saying a neighbour had complained about her rooster making a racket, but she thinks it is a case of mistaken identity.
The accused boisterous bird - known as 'Kevin's Brother' - lives on Bowmont St, and spends every night in a box inside a shed, Cole told Checkpoint, so it cannot be him.
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"When a rooster is in a box and they can't lift their head up high enough, they won't crow, they won't crow as loud or as readily. Like, it's too much effort."
Spending each night in a box was a compromise Cole agreed to, Stuff reported, that allowed her to keep Kevin's Brother - but after a period of calm, the neighbour complained again.
Photo: Used with permission
"My other neighbours, I had lots of conversations - this neighbour, I didn't, Just where their house is positioned, I didn't think it would be an issue for them. And, so I've never, I've never talked to these guys.
"But I talked to other neighbours a lot about it, especially over the summer - reached out and made sure they were okay with it and that it wasn't a problem. And we've had roosters in the past that are particularly rowdy, and we just get rid of them and just hope we get a nice quiet, calm guy."
Kevin's Brother crowed in the morning, then again around 3.30pm, but if he did at night, you would have to be in the shed with him to hear it, she said.
"He sounds pretty pathetic."
Cole wanted to keep Kevin's Brother as a kind of guardian for her hens - not to mention a source of new chicks.
"We didn't have a rooster for quite a while. We have had them on and off. But then we didn't have one and we had stoats come in and they took the whole flock, which was not very nice.
"And then after that, I got a mama and her chicks and cats came and took all the chicks… I think they took nine and we were left with just roosters.
"So we got rid of them, kept one and then I used him to kind of build up the flock again without it costing us a fortune."
Stuff reported the council prepared a 35-page report on the case, after the nuisance was first reported in March, and had been sending staff out to knock on doors to ask about the noise.
Despite this level of investigation, Cole said there had been a lack of communication from the council, and she was not yet sure whether Kevin's Brother was safe, or if he would meet the same fate as his predecessors.
"I'm waiting," Cole said. "They haven't got back to me. I don't know how long it's gonna take."