The Board of Health will hold a public hearing next month on a rooster ban

By Mark E. Vogler

Board of Health Director John R. Fralick III calls it “a last resort” when he wants to invoke the nuisance law to remove boisterous roosters from a residential neighborhood. “It’s easy enough to cite the nuisance regulation just due to the fact that obviously they’re loud,” Fralick told members at Monday’s Board of Health meeting.

“When there’s pushback to that particular enforcement, we do have to prove they’re causing a general nuisance on a frequent basis,” he said.

The Board of Health will send invitations to the town’s 47 animal permit holders – 37 who are exclusively chickens – to attend the March 3 board meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Saugus Public Library.

“What we’re trying to do is shore up some of these regulations,” Fralick said.

“We want to make sure we have some teeth as far as enforcement is concerned in the banning of roosters. A number of municipalities in the area have long since banned roosters from being able to be permitted; that’s due to a couple of reasons,” he said.

“When we come into a situation when there’s a rooster involved with an animal keeper permit, we can’t really regulate the population as well as we’d like to do. Some permit holders have five chickens one year and 20 chickens the next year all because they introduced roosters into the flock. We want to make sure we have a good finger on the pulse.”

Fralick said he will draft some regulation language from different municipalities, then consult with town counsel before holding a public hearing.