Sorry @Mellowmalt. I did not intend to offend. I think you missed my point, albeit subtle. I haven't lived in the UK for more than 3 months at a time but it is not uncommon for people here in the US to bully neighbors into complying with their egocentric whims. Here we chicken keepers, for the most part, try to abide by the laws and regulations that provide legal guidelines for our daily activities regarding our poultry. Sometimes we all have experienced the not so nice neighbor that regardless of our attempts to be nice seem to find fault with small stuff, like noisy chickens. My analogy between free range cats and barking dogs was only meant as an example of common everyday "neighborhood" issues that we just accept that it is annoying but dogs will be dogs, and cats will be cats. Just the same as chickens will be chickens.