Two pet cockerels banished from a Mearns village were crowing triumphantly after escaping the chop and moving to a new home over 70 miles away in the Perthshire countryside.
The two birds, Rooster and Gobi, ruffled feathers in Inverbervie when neighbours complained that the noise they made was making their lives a misery.
They then made history at Stonehaven Sheriff Court in a case which cost their young owner’s father thousands of pounds trying to prove they did not constitute a statutory nuisance.
If they hadn’t flown the coop it seemed the cockerels now the most expensive in the country were doomed to disaster.
But thanks to The Courier they were given a last-minute reprieve when the owners of the Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre, Comrie, read of their plight.
Mearns businessman Alex Panayotti (52) has racked up a huge legal bill after losing his case at Stonehaven to keep the cockerels.
He called in the services of a sound expert, which alone cost him £3000, and on top of his own legal costs he has now been landed with the bill for the costs incurred by the local authority.
He says the cockerels have provided his daughter Stella, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, with much-needed diversion.
But attempts to soundproof their coop and move it to the most remote part of the garden failed to pacify the neighbours, who called in Aberdeenshire Council environmental health officers.
Following a hearing at Stonehaven, Sheriff Patrick Davies ruled that the council was not unreasonable in serving a noise abatement notice seeking the cockerels’ removal.
He said, “It has not been shown that any steps short of removing the two cockerels would abate the nuisance.”
Auchingarrich owners Maxine and Andrew Scott offered help immediately, and the two raucous roosters were delivered to their new home at the weekend.
The centre, which the couple took over a year ago, boasts around 90 different species of birds and animals.
Mr Scott said, “We hope they enjoy a long and happy life with us and Stella is welcome to come and visit them whenever she likes.”
Though sorry to lose her pets, Stella said, “This is a happy ending.”