In the pecking order of New York City’s illegal animals, roosters rule the roost, city data show.
The noisy cluckers represented 63 percent of wild-animal violations last year, Health Department records say.
Violators were found in all five boroughs, with the most in The Bronx, including “three crowing roosters” at a Bathgate Avenue auto-repair shop, the data show.
Manhattan’s lone cock was “harbored inside a coop” in an East Village back yard, city records say.
Hens are legal in the city, but roosters — along with ducks, geese and turkeys — are not. Violators face fines of $ 1,000.
“Roosters tend to be noisy and aggressive, and they are not needed for egg production,” Health Department spokeswoman Veronica Lewin said.
New Yorkers squawked to the city’s 311 hot line 121 times last year about illegally kept roosters, the city says. Ten violators were ticketed that year.
“We receive many complaints that are not valid because people often mistake hens for roosters, or the rooster is not on the property when the Health Department inspects,” Lewin noted.
So far this year, 75 rooster complaints have been logged.
But not everyone minds the cock-a-doodle-do.
“I think it’s refreshing to be able to hear some wildlife, even domestic animals, in the neighborhood,” said Laura Hofmann of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where a rogue rooster served as a local alarm clock last year.
“It was never enough to keep me awake. I’d just roll over and go back to sleep.”
Yahoo Local News – New York Post
http://ift.tt/1v5hybW
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment