ROCHEFORT (FRANCE): The owner of famed French rooster Maurice emerged victorious on Thursday 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.
The judge found that the rooster, being a rooster, had a right to crow in his rural habitat.
The case brought by the neighbours of Maurice's owner Corinne Fesseau has made headlines around the world, seen as symptomatic of the tensions in the countryside between rural folk and holiday homeowners. "Maurice won and the plaintiffs must pay his owner 1,000 euros in damages," Fesseau's lawyer Julien Papineau said.
Fesseau had told the court in Rochefort, western France, that nobody on the picturesque Atlantic island of Oleron had ever complained about Maurice before a couple of pensioners bought a holiday home next door. Jean-Louis Biron, himself a retired farmer, and his wife Joelle, from the Haute-Vienne region of central France, claimed that they were being roused at 4 am by Maurice's shrill wake-up call.
Reacting to the ruling Thursday, she shouted a victorious "Cocorico" (French for cock-a-doodle-doo) outside the courtroom and said she was "speechless". "It's a victory for everyone in the same situation as me. I hope it will set a precedent for them."
What began as a dispute between neighbours ballooned into a national cause celebre, with 140,000 people signing a "Save Maurice".
The judge found that the rooster, being a rooster, had a right to crow in his rural habitat.
The case brought by the neighbours of Maurice's owner Corinne Fesseau has made headlines around the world, seen as symptomatic of the tensions in the countryside between rural folk and holiday homeowners. "Maurice won and the plaintiffs must pay his owner 1,000 euros in damages," Fesseau's lawyer Julien Papineau said.
Fesseau had told the court in Rochefort, western France, that nobody on the picturesque Atlantic island of Oleron had ever complained about Maurice before a couple of pensioners bought a holiday home next door. Jean-Louis Biron, himself a retired farmer, and his wife Joelle, from the Haute-Vienne region of central France, claimed that they were being roused at 4 am by Maurice's shrill wake-up call.
Reacting to the ruling Thursday, she shouted a victorious "Cocorico" (French for cock-a-doodle-doo) outside the courtroom and said she was "speechless". "It's a victory for everyone in the same situation as me. I hope it will set a precedent for them."
What began as a dispute between neighbours ballooned into a national cause celebre, with 140,000 people signing a "Save Maurice".
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