Rooster victorious in court case to silence it

T H E OW N E R o f f a me d F r e n c h r o o s t e r Mau r i c e e me r g e d v i c t o r i o u s o n Thursday f rom a lega l bat t le wit h her neig hbours over his e a r l y - mor n i n g c r o w i n g , wit h a cou r t uphold i ng t he bi r d’s r i g ht t o s i ng i n t he day.

The ca se broug ht by t he neighbours of Maurice’s owner Corinne Fesseau has made headlines around the world, seen as sy mptomatic of t he tensions i n t he count r yside bet ween rura l folk and holiday home owners.

“Mau r ic e won a nd t he plaintiffs must pay his owner 1,000 euros in damages,” Fesseau’s law yer Julien Papineau told AFP.

Fesseau had told t he cou r t i n R o c h e f o r t , w e s t e r n Fra nce, t hat nobody on t he pict uresque At la nt ic isla nd of Ol e r on h a d e v e r c omp l a i n e d a b o u t Ma u r i c e before a couple of pensioners boug ht a hol iday home nex t door.

Jean-Louis Biron, himself a ret ired fa r mer, a nd his wife Joelle, from the Haute-Vienne r e g ion of c ent r a l Fr a nc e, claimed that they were being roused at 4 am by Maurice’s shrill wake-up ca ll.

Fesseau said she made severa l at tempts to si lence her pet, including placing black sheet s a rou nd h is coop to trick him into t hink ing t hat morning had not yet broken -- a l l to no avail.

Re a c t i ng t o t he r u l i ng Thursday, she shouted a v ictor ious “Cocor ico” (French for cock-a-doodle-doo) outside the courtroom and said she was “speechless”.

“It’s a v ictor y for ever yone in the same situation as me. I hope it will set a precedent for t hem,” she said, ca lling for a new “Maurice law” protecting t he sounds of t he count r yside.

In May, t he mayor of t he southwestern village of Gajac, Bruno Dionis, penned a furious open letter in defence of t he rights of church bells to ring, cows to moo and donkeys to bray throughout rural France.