Roosters are ruffling feathers in a Jersey Shore community, where complaints about noisy backyard birds have prompted officials to approve a new ban.
Leaders in Brick Township, New Jersey, approved an ordinance this month prohibiting residents from getting new roosters. However, people who already own the birds can keep them as long as they’re housed in properly approved enclosures.
The new rules come after township officials received numerous complaints about roosters crowing in residential neighborhoods.
“Township staff have been receiving many complaints about roosters that are in small residential areas,” an official said during a council meeting.
Another speaker at the meeting emphasized that the noise is no laughing matter for people living nearby.
“It sounds comical, but let me tell you, if you have a rooster next door to your house, it is serious,” the speaker said.
Brick Township resident Rick Reinhold said the crowing can be heard throughout the day and night.
“Well, it goes all hours at a night. It goes wee hours at a morning. You hear it all the time,” Reinhold said.
“All the neighbors complain,” he added.
Reinhold said the close proximity of homes makes keeping roosters particularly problematic.
“I mean, I’m an animal lover, but I wouldn’t like to see anything happen, but it’s really not the place for it in this type of a space,” he said.
But not everyone in the neighborhood agrees that the birds are a nuisance.
Resident Tayna Flores, who lives near a home with a rooster, said the crowing doesn’t disturb her.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Flores said.
She also questioned whether the township needed to take action.
“I think that’s ridiculous. Because that doesn’t bother a lot of people, you know?” Flores said.
The owners of a rooster in the neighborhood declined to speak on camera.
While the ordinance prevents residents from acquiring new roosters, it doesn’t require existing owners to give up their birds, provided they meet the enclosure requirements.
That means the familiar sound of crowing could continue in parts of Brick Township for some time.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.
