You're sufficiently skilled as a writer, Brian, to be coy about your stand on the rooster. You can play it both ways. You're not clearly advocating for the outcome. But as you well know, even having a column about it raises the stakes in this case. One man's ceiling is another man's floor. One man's natural sound is another man's nuisance disturbance. How about the paradox of an author who could write an entire book reflecting on silence imposing an out-of-context and impossible to ignore sound on her own neighbors? She wants the rooster because she wants the rooster. How about doing a column on the epidemic of selfishness in our culture? Or on second thought, maybe that's what you just did.

Roosters have no place in neighborhood settings. They start crowing incessently at 4:00AM and it is impossible to sleep through the noise if you are anywhere in the vicinity. In my town, you can keep chickens, but roosters are illegal because they are a public nuisance. One of my neighbors got a rooster in a batch of chicks, and after neighbors complained they had the decency to make a meal of it.

 Like the ocean tides, a rooster marks the passing of the day, and then some. However, like a barking dog or crying child, some life noises are not as tolerated. We too, got a barn permit to cover ourselves. When the building inspector tried to get us to purchase a building permit for our chicken coop, more wire than frame, we resisted . Many people are so accustomed to the sounds of trucks and construction that they do not recognize or value nature. We live by the oceasn, and the screech of seagulls always accompany our interactions. So it was suprising when our own neighbors complained about our rooster. One of our other neighbors even called the police when a few of our free ranged chickens were found scratching the dirt under one of his trees!!His yard, is his yard, but this was not a prized Mimosa tree or anything other than a typical tree. I couldnt stop laughing when the poor policewomen told us of the complaint. How miserable are some people. Sadly, we had a BBQ with our rooster, such is life in suburbia.

"LeClaire lacked the required permits to keep the bird at home."  What are these permits and what needs to be done to obtain them?  Does Chatham have an ordinance that strictly prohibits roosters from residences or residential districts?  Why are the LeClaires so against having the rooster transferred; they didn't want him to begin with?  Why the deliberate exclusion of helpful facts here?

The sound of a rooster crowing is natural for sure . . . on a farm. 

I have lived in the country and now I live in the "burbs". Roosters are a lot of fun when you don't have neighbors close by that they will annoy but they are pests in a neighborhood

If you're messin' with the chicken, don't forget about the lickin'.

Roosters don't crow just once, they crow all day long.  It is very disturbing and shouldn't be allowed in any neighborhood.