Put away the cats & chickens, Ma!
New ordinance could silence sounds of rural life

Brendan Hoover

Following the lead of other Oklahoma City metro communities, Mustang could soon see a new city ordinance that would attempt to put a lid on nuisance noise from animals on residential property.

The city already has an ordinance on the books dealing with nuisance dog barking, but no way to handle noise from other animals, which create disturbances.

Civil lawsuits are the citizens’ only recourse.

The Mustang City Council discussed the proposed ordinance, which would amend the noise portion of the municipal code, at their regular meeting Jan. 2 at City Hall.

The ordinance would allow citizens to file a criminal complaint with the police department or animal control if they think they have been imposed on by nuisance animal noise.

“The court, based upon testimony, would then decide if that’s a violation of the law,” City Manager David Cockrell said.

Councilwoman Kathleen Moon said noise complaints are very subjective.

City Planner Melissa Helsel said that the current noise ordinance in general states that noise should not annoy people of ordinary sensibilities.

“Which sounds vague, but (the new ordinance) leaves it up to the person who is the complainant to justify that there was a reason for the complaint,” Helsel said.

Although no hard evidence of a need for the new provision was presented during discussion, the council seemed to agree that some measure should be taken so the city could deal with problems with non-dog noise should they arise.

Cockrell said he was not aware of noise complaints other than dogs.

“If there were, I might not know because police and animal control are telling people it’s a civil issue,” he said.

Mayor Jeff Landrith said the noise complaint calls he generally gets concern cats, dogs, chickens, cars and parties, and that three of those are already covered by law.

“It’s the cats and chickens that I think we are looking at a way to assist with,” Landrith said.

Landrith said the calls he has received were from the Heights and Meadows additions.

Animals mentioned during discussion were: cats, chickens, cows, donkeys, goats and horses.

While chuckles and one-liners were sprinkled among the discussion, some points were brought up about possible complications with the new ordinance.

Councilman Keith Bryan said livestock and other lawful animals on agricultural land should be exempt from the new law.

“Mustang has been an agricultural town forever. It’s hard to tell a farmer his cow is too loud when (she) lost her calf or something. We need to look into exemptions for agriculture,” Bryan said.

Councilman Len Scott and Moon warned against allowing the new ordinance to be used as a weapon by feuding neighbors.

“I don’t want to put something on the books that will give neighbors an opportunity to harass each other and use City Hall as a tool,” Moon said.

Moon also cringed when the matter of decibel levels in the new ordinance was brought up.

“That’s a nuisance in itself,” she said.

Cockrell said he would look into how many non-dog complaints have been received by animal control, and that a pragmatic approach would be best.

“As with ordinances of this type, a lot of it deals with just good common sense in the enforcement,” he said.

In other business, Harry Varenhorst was appointed to the city’s board of adjustments.