There are plenty of city sounds to wake New Yorkers, but in one Bronx building an especially loud and unusual one is waking residents at the crack of dawn. NY1’s Susan Jhun filed the following NY1 For You report.
It was a wake-up call Tia Smith wasn't expecting, when she came back from vacation a few weeks ago to find a new henhouse next door to her Bronx building.
“The next morning when I woke up, there was a rooster crowing at 4:30 in the morning,” says Smith. “It's like a forceful alarm clock that you have no control over to turn off.”
Renters say the crowing starts at 4 a.m. and goes on for hours.
“I come back here around 8 in the morning and I still hear it,” says Ivan Crespo, a building super.
According to city Health Code, it is illegal to have roosters in the city. Still, Smith says she cannot get anyone to take action.
“I've spoken to the ASPCA, the EPA, 311, police department, nothing,” says Smith.
NY1 is in the process of contacting the board of the co-op building where the rooster is living. In the meantime, the station called the Department of Health and an inspector is being sent to the location.
NY1 For You will continue to follow this story, but for now, the seemingly silly situation is no laughing matter for Smith.
“When you get no sleep, it's not funny anymore,” she says.