Drama ensued in a suburban Las Vegas neighborhood after a man’s domesticated birds kept his neighbors from ever getting a good night’s sleep.
The man’s neighbors were fed up with the annoying noises and filed a complaint with the Clark County Code Enforcement.
The home received a violation for having ‘roosters and chickens,’ which aren’t permitted in their residential area.
The couple even sent a letter to their neighbor asking him to control the pets before local Fox affiliate, KVVU-TV, knocked on the bird-lover’s door.
Even though the complaints cited roosters crowing in the early hours, KVVU instead found dozens of pigeons at the property when they confronted the home owner.
The pigeon-lover, Chong, claimed to KVVU that he has only a small chicken and dozens of pigeons he uses for racing.
‘This is my passion. We have a huge club… we compete them and we send them to places like Arizona, 300 to 500 miles away to compete all over the nation,’ Chong told the outlet.
‘This is my sport, my passion,’ he added.
Chong admitted he’d be devastated if his pigeons were taken away. He said he recently moved to Nevada from Cuba and wasn’t aware of local laws on domesticating the birds.
Clark County Code Enforcement told the outlet that Chong’s property didn’t have a permit to race pigeons.
After a notice of violation is sent to a property owner, they may be fined up to $500 per day until it is corrected.
The county had previously combated issues with pigeons in November when another property had flocks of pigeons constantly surrounding it.
‘They start cooing about 5 a.m. and it goes on all day long, flying and flocking, flying and flocking,’ one neighbor told KVVU at the time.
‘It’s a health hazard for all of us. Our cars are always covered in pigeon poop, our houses, our yards, everything,’ she added.
Pigeons are legal to have as pets in Nevada, provided they are kept in a proper enclosure and are kept at least 200 feet from another home.
Crowing roosters are prohibited in Las Vegas, and hens are only allowed if the owner obtains written consent from their neighbors.