SINGAPORE: One morning several months ago, I was rudely awakened at 5.45am by an unearthly sound best described as a vuvuzela tooted at full blast.
The ear-splitting “uh-uh-uh-ooooooooooooh!” lasted about 4 seconds, followed by a 15-second silence. The ruckus repeated itself on loop for about 10 minutes. By then, there was no way I could get back to sleep.
It occurred again around 10am, 1pm and 5pm, and became a daily thing. I would crane my neck out of my balcony trying to identify its source, to no avail.
After two months of sleep deprivation, I had enough and headed to the condo management office to complain. The staff suspected the crowing might come from a wild rooster, or that one of the houses near the condo has decided to keep chickens.
I insisted the noise came from much closer – probably one of the units in my block – and had the audio recordings to prove it.
But I was told that without any photographic evidence, management can’t go around knocking on everyone’s doors to investigate. Not only would it be a waste of manpower, but the owner could simply hide their rooster before letting the staff in.
Herein lies the tension: Many people love animals and are entitled to keep them as pets. But some pets, such as chickens and dogs, can get quite noisy compared to other critters like rabbits or terrapins.
In the past five years, government agencies and town councils received around 4,100 chicken-related complaints – not surprising as a rooster’s crow can be as loud as 130 decibels, equivalent to standing 15 meters away from a jet taking off. Roosters crow up to 20 times a day, and have been known to start (or end) their day at 2am.
TAKING MATTERS INTO MY OWN HANDS
With the condo management unable to do much, I decided to take matters into my own hands.Whenever a “cock-a-doodle-doo” came on, I took the lift down to the ground floor and scanned my neighbours’ balconies for roosters. Still nothing.
So I stuck a home-made poster saying: “Stop noise pollution! Whose loud chicken is it?” in the lift. Technically, condo management prohibits residents from putting up notices, but I figured if they couldn’t uncover whose cock it was, they wouldn’t be able to guess who put up the unauthorised handbill either.
The very next day, both the crowing and my poster disappeared.
Thereafter, my next-door neighbour began walking around in the open with the most adorable blonde Silkie hen. With its fluffy pom-pom head and fuzzy feet, it resembled a stuffed toy more than an actual chicken. It was so tame that it never strayed far, seemed to enjoy being petted, and allowed itself to be cuddled and even carried upside down.
Other neighbours, young and old, would gather around it, asking questions and lingering to chat about other topics. Apparently, there’s nothing better than a chicken to rekindle that kampung spirit which some Singaporeans lament has disappeared over the decades, along with chicken-filled kampungs!
I also overheard the Silkie’s owners explain that she had a rooster companion, but they had to give it away as he was too loud. It seemed that my guerilla poster worked – or perhaps my neighbour had already received complaints and took action herself.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/com...omplain-report-condo-hdb-mp-3133861?cid=FBcna
