Fort Worth may be known as Cowtown, but it’s a bird that stirred a noisy controversy at city hall Tuesday night.
The city council voted unanimously to limit the number of roosters to one or two per household after hearing emotional comments from rooster owners and their fed-up neighbors.
"One rooster that crows from sunup to sundown is enough to interrupt the peace and quiet of a neighborhood," said Fort Worth resident Peggy Shelton.
Others complained that roosters are often used in cockfights.
"Our city should serve as a place to raise children and families and not as a place to raise noisy and nasty creatures that are used for illegal activity," said resident Troy McElroy.
But rooster owners spoke out against any limits.
"God put these creatures here for a reason," said Jose Cardenas, who raises about 200 roosters behind his home on the Southside and said he considers them a pet. "One of the best things that happens is when you get off work and you’re all tired and stressed from work, you come over here, you look at them, you put them in your hands, the stress goes away."
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Cardenas said he started raising roosters in 1982 and hasn’t received any complaints from neighbors.
Mayor Mike Moncrief said the new ordinance struck a compromise between rooster owners and those who want the creatures banned altogether.
The new law would limit roosters to one on a half-acre lot, two on an acre, and three on larger lots.
