CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A rooster’s cry is ruffling feathers in one Clay County neighborhood. It’s roaming the Bellair-Meadowbrook Terrace area, and some people are complaining about the nuisance it’s creating.
It’s a morning wake-up call some neighbors, like Bruce Dempsey, didn’t ask for.
“It’s a big nuisance,” Dempsey said. “It’s disturbing to hear that for the two to three hours every morning
Dempsey has lived in the Bellair-Meadowbrook Terrace neighborhood since 1976 and said he has never had a rooster causing problems before.
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“This rooster roams on other properties and comes to my neighbor’s property and comes up to the fence line, and makes that sound right there at 5 o’clock in the morning, and I’m not a 5 o’clock in the morning person,” Dempsey said.
In Clay County, people can have hens, but not roosters.
“It don’t belong in this area,” Dempsey said.
Now, he’s calling on someone, anyone to handle it.
“I just want to do it the right way, I don’t want the rooster killed,” Dempsey said. “I’ve talked to the county commissioner; I’ve talked to the sheriff’s office; I’ve talked to animal control. Animal control keeps putting it on the sheriff’s office, and the sheriff’s office said it’s an animal control issue.”
We tried to get those answers on Monday night.
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said it’s not a law-enforcement matter, but rather a county or code enforcement issue.
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However, Clay County Animal Services said they don’t enforce those complaints either. They added the CCSO Agriculture Deputy might be able to assist in a case like this.
However, the CCSO spokesperson said the agriculture deputy would not take on a case like this and encouraged the complainant to reach out to code enforcement.
Action News Jax is waiting to hear back on whether the county’s code enforcement is looking into this.
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“I’m not going to tolerate and I’m not going to move either, I’m going to force the county to do what they say they’re going to do,” Dempsey said.
Neighbors said they don’t want anything bad to happen to the rooster and hen, they just want it to be removed and taken to a farm.
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