A BOATER was so fed up of being woken by a noisy cockerel that she throttled it in a ‘fit of rage’ at its constant crowing.
Long-distance lorry driver, Caroline Smith, claimed in court that six months of sleepless nights almost cost her her job, and told she was ‘at her wits end’ when she stormed out of her narrowboat at 3am, seized her neighbour’s pet Eddie by the neck and threw him to the floor, Keith Gudgin reports.
Previously complained
She had previously complained to Eddie’s owner about the crowing on a stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool canal in Adlington, but attempts to re-home the bird had failed.
The cockerel was taken to a vet’s surgery where a report showed he had suffered a ‘traumatic brain injury as a result of an extended period of asphyxiation'.
The noisy bird recovered within a week and was back crowing again later.
Six month of sleeplessness
When interviewed by RSPCA officers Caroline told them she had suffered six months of sleeplessness because of this.’
The outcome was £1,296 vet's bill and costs and being evicted from the moorings, though she insists that the noise during the early moorings was against the mooring rules. Which were ignored.