Sheriff to decide roosters’ fate after neighbours row

THE fate of two roosters at the centre of a feud between neighbours is now in the hands of a sheriff.

Alex Panayotti, 52, is fighting to keep his pet birds, named Rooster and Gobi, for his disabled 13-year-old daughter, Stella.

But Aberdeenshire Council officials have ordered him to get rid of the chickens following complaints from two neighbours.

Mr Panayotti’s appeal to save the roosters has now come to a close at Stonehaven Sheriff Court.

And Sheriff Patrick Davies will now consider whether the two birds constitute a statutory nuisance and should be removed.

Mr Panayotti and Aberdeenshire Council solicitor Robin Taylor summed up their respective cases in court.

The roosters’ owner argued the level of noise created by the two birds was not loud enough to be considered a nuisance by neighbours in Inverbervie.

He also claimed Aberdeenshire Council had not taken into consideration his proposals to move the chicken coop or to separate the two animals, at his home on King Street.

Mr Taylor argued the evidence given by neighbours David McDonald and Moira Brechin was enough to suggest the crowing was intolerable.

Mrs Brechin, 55, previously told the court she had been tormented by two years of noise and disruption and had suffered anxiety attacks as a result of the birds.

Environmental health officer Arthur Ingram explained he had visited Mr McDonald on two occasions to observe the roosters’ behaviour and deemed the frequency and unpredictability of their crowing a statutory nuisance.

Sheriff Davies was expected to reach a decision in the coming months.

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