All animals can now be cock-a-hoop

Not just Maurice the Rooster has reason to be cock-a-hoop over the recent court ruling in France upholding his right to crow whenever he pleases — particularly at dawn. Rural communities everywhere will certainly crow over this reiteration of their age-old way of life over the alarm-clock addicted urban folk.

Having won a two year court battle and obtained damages for his owner from the complainants, Maurice certainly has good reason to be cock of the walk on the Île d’Oléron in western France. But the implications are wider, because upholding a rooster’s right to follow its natural instincts also extends the definition of right to freedom of expression to the whole animal kingdom, not merely litigious *homo sapiens*.

It not only bolsters wolves’ rights to bay at the moon and crickets to chirp at the dead of night, but also countless other living creatures, no matter how much their clamour ruffles feathers in certain quarters.


Indeed, the very idea of going to court to restrain a rooster, and by extension all his brethren, from doing what they naturally do smacks of urban disdain for natural phenomena, not to mention ignorance of circadian rhythms. Can anyone really think that a rooster can actually be ordered to stop crowing — and perhaps even be penalised for defying it with, say, solitary confinement in a sunless cell?