The Animal Welfare (Welfare of Poultry: Non-Commercial) Code of Practice 2010 provides general guidelines for keeping backyard poultry in the ACT, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, pheasants and roosters.
Under the Code all bird owners are responsible for the health and wellbeing of their birds including providing them with:
- ready access to suitable food and clean water
- freedom to move, stand, turn around, stretch, sit and lie down
- freedom to scratch, dust bath, perch and lay eggs in a nest
- contact with other members of their species
- accommodation which provides adequate protection from rain, wind, direct sunlight and extreme temperatures
- good hygiene, for example drinking containers, feeding area and the shelter floor maintained in a sanitary state
- prevention of disease and injury and rapid treatment should they occur
- protection from predators, for example foxes, dogs, cats and predatory birds.
The Code states that people wishing to keep roosters should consider the impact their crowing may have on neighbours.
Responsible ownership
Ownership of roosters in suburban areas is becoming more common in the ACT. Currently roosters are permitted in suburban areas as long as keepers are in compliance with the Animal Welfare Act 1992 and the Domestic Animals Act 2000.
As with most birds, roosters are diurnal animals, which means they rise with the sun. This is why roosters crow at dawn which is the cause of most nuisance complaints related to poultry.
Crowing roosters can have a significant impact on community members through ongoing sleep deprivation. As a responsible owner, it is your job to minimise the impact of your roosters crowing on your neighbours.
Minimising the impact of crowing
Steps you can take to minimise the impact of your roosters crowing:
- reconsider the need to keep a rooster in a suburban setting as they are not required for chickens to produce eggs
- if you do decide to keep a rooster, keep it in a night box/blackout box
- use artificial light sources to trick the rooster’s biological clock, resulting in it crowing later in the day.
Lodging a nuisance complaint
If you are negatively impacted by a crowing rooster you may lodge a nuisance complaint with Domestic Animal Services.
Before lodging your complaint, please speak with your neighbour about the problem. Often people are unaware of the impact on their neighbour and speaking with them directly can address the issue.
To lodge a complaint in relation to a crowing rooster, please complete the animal nuisance complaint form and email it to animalcontrol@act.gov.au.
Managing complaints
In deciding how to respond and manage complaints, Domestic Animal Services considers:
- the number of people affected
- the damage, disturbance or danger resulting, or likely to result, from the nuisance
- any reasonable precautions the animal’s owner has taken to stop or minimise the nuisance
- any reasonable precautions the person adversely affected has taken to avoid or minimise the effects of the nuisance.
