Wake couple says neighbor's crowing roosters are 'definition of insanity'

After not receiving help from the county or state lawmakers, they are now warning people not to move to Wake County and risk being in a similar situation.

Their home is on three acres of land but it is not isolated and sits in a residential neighborhood.

Day and night, Keith Robinson and Andrea Reubens said the noise coming from next door is driving them mad.

"That's the definition of insanity over there," Robinson said.

The roosters and their owners moved next door to the couple five years ago.

"Why are they screaming. Why don't they stop? They just scream and scream," Reubens said.

The couple reached out to the sheriff's office and county commissioners who conducted a site visit in August and determined the roosters coops and debris on the property were in compliance with current regulations, which do not limit the number of roosters or other farm animals.

"I said, 'Can they literally stack them to the sky?' and they said,'Yes,'" Robinson said. "If they have adequate food and water they can have as many as they want."

"This can happen to anybody right now with the way rules, law ordinances are set up," Reubens said.

Reubens discovered several counties in California with rooster issues have enacted ordinances.

She proposed a similar one in Wake County, but the director of planning development and inspections, Tim Maloney, said he won't pursue it .

"This has not been a common issue in Wake County. We feel as though the situation they are experiencing would be better addressed as a civil matter in a court of law," Maloney said.

"So if this left here, they are going to go somewhere else in the county next to somebody else," Andrea Reubens said. "Does anybody really want this behind their house?"

The couple said they are now in the process of moving, but they expect selling their house will be difficult if not impossible, unless they sell it to someone who is raising roosters.