A sleep-deprived lorry driver made a cockerel 'wobbly' and 'unable to walk' with brain damage because its constant crowing kept waking her up.
Caroline Smith said she reached the end of her tether and became 'very, very angry' when the bird - an Araucana breed - kept waking her up in the early hours of the morning.
The 52-year-old eventually resorted to taking things into her own hands when the issue wasn't resolved and she was once again disturbed by its crowing.
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She admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the bird, named Eddy, but told a court “I could have killed it if I wanted to”, reports LancsLive.
Smith was living on a house boat at moorings off Westhoughton Road, Adlington, when the bird hatched on the boat of one of her neighbours. Wigan Magistrates Court heard it was initially believed the bird was a hen - but when he began crowing early in the mornings they realised he was actually male.
The court heard this led to loud noises every morning and Smith said the sleep deprivation caused her stress and high blood pressure. She also said it affected her ability to work as a long distance lorry driver.
Prosecuting, Ann McDonald said the incident happened when Smith returned from holiday late one night in September 2022. The bird’s owner Justine Carroll was also away.
Ms Carroll had previously told her neighbour that if the crowing continued to be a problem, she would either rehouse the bird or humanely kill it.
Believing the issue would have been sorted, Smith was enraged to again be woken up early the following morning. She left her boat and reached into the bird’s cage on top of Ms Carroll’s, eventually managing to grab hold of it.
Carrying Eddy she then marched over to the boat of Sarah Taylor - who also lived nearby - demanding the problem be dealt with before taking the bird back to her own boat. According to Ms McDonald, witnesses reported hearing screaming and feathers flying in the air.
Other neighbours then became involved and took Eddy away from the boat, where the bird was described as being distorted, wobbly and unable to walk. He was taken to the vets the following day and diagnosed with having brain injury caused by loss of oxygen but went on to make a full recovery within two weeks.
When interviewed by the RSPCA, Smith said she came from a farming family and had worked in a pet shop as well as keeping chickens for 30 years so knew about animals. She said cockerels are not allowed at that mooring and that she had not slept properly in six months because of other noise complaints there.
Ms McDonald asked for costs, legal fees and vet fees adding up to almost £2,300. She said the offence carries a maximum sentence of 12 months but could be dealt with at the magistrates court where there is a limit of six months.
Representing herself in court, Smith, now of Riley Green Marina, said: “On the morning, once again we’ve been woken up. It started at 3.30am on a regular basis. We've been trying to resolve this noise for many months, it results in me having a lot of stress, high blood pressure, migraines. It nearly lost me my job through lack of sleep.”
She said the screaming noise may actually have been chickens who were distressed by the incident and admitted there was a “commotion” as she tried to take Eddy from his cage.
“I was angry, very, very angry, I’ll admit that,” Smith said. “Because she was away, we’d have had to listen to that blimmin’ bird crowing for another eight or nine days until they came to do something about it.
“So I went to speak to Sarah Taylor who was really good friends with our neighbour and she was the one responsible for dealing with the problem. I went to Ms Taylor’s to knock her up, I knew someone was there because her car was in the car park but I got no reply.”
Smith said the bird was in shock when she placed him in her boat but said he was otherwise “fine” and disputed the injuries were as bad as suggested. She added: “If I had wanted to kill this cockerel, I could have done it humanely. I know how to do it but I didn’t want to kill my neighbour’s bird."
Smith pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. Magistrates decided that the case should be adjourned to allow for a pre-sentencing report to be prepared by probation services.
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