Waking up to a rooster’s crow is a part of country living that
many residents of rural San Benito County find endearing, or at
least tolerable. But several residents on Lone Tree Road are
starting to grow tired of the noise and odor created by the
hundreds of roosters that recently moved into their
neighborhood.
Hollister – Waking up to a rooster’s crow is a part of country living that many residents of rural San Benito County find endearing, or at least tolerable. But several residents on Lone Tree Road are starting to grow tired of the noise and odor created by the hundreds of roosters that recently moved into their neighborhood.
During the Board of Supervisors meeting this week several residents who live near a rooster ranch on the corner of Lone Tree and Pan Tempo roads filed up to the podium, one after the other, to address the board with complaints about what they see as a nuisance in their neighborhood. Neighbors of the ranch, who estimate that there are at least 500 birds on the property, speculated that the roosters raised there are being bred for cock fighting.
Gail Gomez, who lives near the rooster ranch which is owned by Frank Del Carlo, played an audio tape so the board could hear how her day typically begins before dawn with the sounds of hundreds of crowing roosters.
“This is at 4am,” she said as the cocks crowed on tape. Gomez told the board that the roosters wake her up early each morning, and she fears that as the summer heat approaches she will not be able to open her windows to let the breeze in because the stench from the roosters will be unbearable.
Nancy Laleau has lived on Lone Tree Road – a rural area in north San Benito County – for seven years and was happy with her home until the rooster ranch moved in about eight months ago.
“I’ve loved it over here,” she said. “But this thing (rooster ranch) is major noise, and as it gets hotter I hope we don’t have a stench.”
Despite several visits to the property, Frank Del Carlo, who owns the five acre rooster ranch on the corner of Lone Tree and Pan Tempo roads which is surrounded by a solid, barbed wire fence, could not be reached for comment.
County Supervisor Don Marcus, whose constituency includes the residents on Lone Tree Road, said he has received about eight complaints about the roosters in the past two months.
“They are complaining about the noise and smell and questioning the use of the facility,” he said. “From everyone’s accounting – the people making the complaints – it’s not a chicken and egg ranch, it looks like a ranch for raising fighting roosters.”
In addition to the nuisance residents say the roosters create, residents have aired concerns that the large number of noisy, odoriferous birds has significantly lowered their property values, Marcus said.
The San Benito Sheriff’s Department has received complaints about the noisy birds, but at this point it is a planning department issue until a law is broken, said Sheriff Curtis Hill.
“These things fester and create tremendously negative neighborhood dynamics,” he said. “And then the Hatfields and McCoys stuff starts.”
While it is not illegal to raise roosters in the county, possessing one of the birds to use for rooster fighting is against the law, Hill said.
“Cock fighting in the county is illegal,” he said. “To me it’s like dog fights, – an unnecessary sport.”
During their meeting Tuesday, supervisors were sympathetic to the residents’ complaints.
“At some point I hope we can address some of these uses on five acre parcels,” Supervisor Anthony Botelho said.
Acting County Administrative Officer Susan Lyons said that she understands that the noise created by the roosters is a nuisance which needs to be abated.
“We will do what ever we can to mitigate this,” she said.
The county planning department has also received complaints about the roosters, said Stacy Watson, a code enforcement officer for the department.
If there are fewer than 500 birds on the property, Del Carlo is technically within county law, Watson said. But, she said, if the residents can establish that the roosters are creating a public nuisance the county might be able to do something to quell the noise.
California law broadly defines a public nuisance as: “Any thing which is injurious to health, or is indecent, or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood.”
Watson said that she suggested that the annoyed residents document how and when the roosters create a nuisance, and how it affects their ability to use and enjoy their homes and property. She also suggested that they create a petition and possibly take their complaints to civil court, which might refer the case to the planning department.
“We want to help,” she said.
Luke Roney covers politics and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
