FEN Tiger and countryman Paul Boon is furious after being ordered to get rid of the six cockerels in his garden, following complaints about their noisy early morning crowing.

Paul - who has already eaten one of his cockerels for Sunday lunch since receiving the ultimatum - keeps the poultry as part of a menagerie in his Littleport home, and says they are just part of country life.

He fears he is facing eviction if he fails to dispose of the cockerels, and suspects it is residents of a new housing estate behind his home who have complained about the early morning chorus.

Paul, 66, said: “If they don’t like country noises, they should not move here. Before the houses were build the land was used as a dairy farm, and of course I never complained about the mooing of the cows.”

Countryman Paul also keeps 10 chickens, three white geese, a Chinese goose, seven ducks, a barn owl, a Harris hawk, an eagle owl, nine kakarikis, three cats, and two Jack Russell dogs.

He added: “I was born and bred in Littleport, I am a countryman and a Fen Tiger.”

The saga of the cockerels began a five months ago, when Paul received a letter and a visit from the environmental health department of East Cambridgeshire District Council.

After that, Paul sound proofed the cockerels’ pen, and he locked them up every night in an effort to keep the noise down.

But a letter from landlords Sanctuary Hereward has now demanded that Paul remove the cockerels, because of the “substatial” noise nuisance between 3.20am and 7.00am.

The letter adds: “I hope you feel this is fair to the neighbourhood and you will carry out the request voluntarily. If they are not removed, the environmental health department will be forced to serve a compliance notice on you.”

A spokesman for East Cambridgeshire District Council said: “We did receive complaints and monitored the noise from the cockerels. We found there was a problem, and passed our findings on to Sanctuary Hereward.”

A representative from Sanctuary Hereward said: “As landlord of the property we have to consider the wellbeing of all our tenants. In this case, a complaint was made by another resident to both us and East Cambridgeshire District Council’s environmental health department.

“Mr Boon agreed noise levels at the property would be monitored by environmental health and if found to be unacceptable, the offending animals would be removed.

“In the event, it was found the cockerels, which start crowing from 3.20 in the morning, were causing noise pollution.”