Chicken kicked out of town after neighbor cries fowlBooster the rooster is no longer a Powell resident.The former South Hamilton Street poultry was denied permission to continue living in the city last week following a complaint from a neighbor.Addie Heintz and her son Bodie had been raising Booster on their property since May — though for the first stretch, Booster was raised indoors in an incubator.

“We weren't sure if we would be able to keep him,” said Heintz, 29.

The Powell Police department received a complaint from a neighbor on Sept. 22 about noise from the rooster. The department's animal control officer, Anna Paris, informed Heintz that she needed a permit to keep Booster; though a common barnyard animal, backyard chickens are classified as exotic pets under Powell ordinance, and must be permitted.

Heintz submitted an application for Booster, which was ultimately denied by Powell Police Chief Tim Feathers.

The chief said his biggest concerns were the rooster's noise and disturbance to the neighborhood.

“They crow,” conceded Heintz, “starting about 6 o'clock.”

However, in her application, Heintz suggested possible measures to mitigate the animal's noise — such as building a dark, sound-proof coop to contain the rooster and installing sound-absorbent fencing.

“I was kind of hoping that (with) some of my suggestions that we could come up with a compromise that would make everybody happy,” Heintz said.

Chief Feathers said he didn't think the mitigation measures would work.

“Crowing as they do in the early morning hours, that's their nature,” he said. “You're not going to stop it from doing that.”

On Monday night, Booster was sent to live with an adoptive parent out-of-town. Heintz said Booster should be happy in his new rural Powell home, but she's been missing his antics, such as tapping on the back door with his beak “as if to say hello.”

“He had become a part of our family,” she said.

Heintz speculated that she would have had a better shot at getting a permit had the chicken been a quieter female.

“Having raised Booster since he was a chick, it was the luck of the draw, really, whether he turned out to be a rooster or a hen,” Heintz said in a follow-up email. “Unfortunately for us, it was the (former).”

The Powell resident said she'd like to know how many other local folks are interested in raising city chickens — a practice that reportedly has been increasing in popularity across the United States in recent years. Heintz said the animals are inexpensive to take care of, and can provide a food source with their eggs.

“I am not the first person, and I am not the only person, who has ever wanted chickens in Powell,” she wrote.