Maurice the rooster scores victory in battle for France's soul
Owner of famed French rooster emerged victorious from a legal battle with her neighbours over his early-morning crowing, with a court upholding the bird's right to sing in the day.
Maurice, the rooster of Corinne Fesseau, whose loud crows landed him in court after being accused of noise pollution, is pictured in Saint-Pierre-d'Oleron, France, August 31, 2019.
A French court ruled on Thursday that a rooster called Maurice could continue his dawn crowing despite complaints from neighbours, in a case the French media has cast as a battle between the old rural way of life and modern values creeping in from the city.
One of Maurice's owners, Corinne Fesseau, said the court in Rochefort, western France, rejected a demand from the neighbours that Maurice be silenced.
"Today, Maurice has won a battle for the whole of France," said Fesseau.
Corinne Fesseau poses with her rooster, Maurice, whose loud crows landed him in court after being accused of noise pollution, in Saint-Pierre-d'Oleron, France August 31, 2019.
Decades-long tensions
Maurice, a four-year-old rooster, lives on a small island off France's Atlantic coast.
His crowing irritated a neighbour, Jean-Louis Biron, who is from the city and bought a second home next door to Maurice's owners. Biron brought the court case.
Maurice’s case underscores decades-long tensions in France around city dwellers who buy summer homes in the countryside without being ready to cope with the realities of rural life, such as animal noise, odours or insects.
Similar court cases against cows and church bells have been filed in France, but none with the same emotive impact as Maurice the rooster, who has elicited letters of support from as far away as in the US.
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