Man who kept neighbours awake with cockerels that crowed 420 times an hour hit with Asbo

Peter Stoodley, 64, has been banned from keeping animals after neighbours complained of the terrible racket.

The local council was swamped with complaints from people woken as early as 2.30am by the dawn chorus.

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Stoodley has now been ordered to pay £7,500 in fines and costs and given an Anti-Social Behaviour Order requiring him to dispose of the animals.

But he said he would rather go to jail than kill the birds.

"I've got very close with the chickens and it's a shame it's come to this," he said.

"I've had them for ten years and there's no way I'll kill them. I'd rather go to prison.

"The land is not used for anything and they're not causing any harm and are not that loud or smelly."

Stoodley claims the birds were already living in the cramped yard near his former business premises in Yeovil, when he moved in ten years ago.

He left the rented property a few years ago but still looks after the birds, which roam an unclaimed plot of land at the back of the shop.

Stoodley, of Shepton Mallet, was summonsed to appear before South Somerset magistrates for breaching a noise abatement order served by South Somerset District Council.

Neighbour Guy De Roper, a former Guardsman, said: "There are in the region of 100 birds.

"The noise is terrible. In winter the cockerels start at about 4.30am. In the summer they start as early as 2.30am."

Sarah Clover, for the council, said: "Neighbours and residents have suffered considerably for some time."

An environmental health officer who twice went to a neighbour's property recorded "in the region of 350 crowings in an hour".

The Asbo bans Stoodley from "conduct which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to other residents".

It also prohibits him "introducing, or keeping, whether by himself or through the agency of others, animals on the land known as land to the rear of Stoodley Carpets".

Stoodley said: "I will have to go to jail because I cannot pay the fine. I have not got any business any more and am living on benefits."