A French couple has lost a nine-year legal battle to let the frogs in their pond stay after a judge ruled that the amphibians make so much noise when they mate that they are disruptive to neighbours.
Michel and Annie Pécheras have been told they have 90 days to drain the 300 square-metre pond at their home in the village of Grignols and get rid of the frogs.
The news comes at the dismay of the couple who say they had already re-excavated the pond to bring it farther from their neighbours property 12 years ago as well as environmental activists who say some of the frogs are a protected species.
According to the Guardian, Michel told journalists his neighbour Jean-Louis Malfione did not complain about the pond at the time and instead had asked who had done the work so he could construct his own pond.
In 2012, Malfione brought legal actin against the couple, with the support of a bailiff who stated that the level of noise made by the frogs at certain times of the year could reach 63 decibels — a little louder than the din of a washing machine — recorded from the neighbour’s open bedroom window.
The case was first thrown out by a local judge in 2014, but later upheld by a Bordeaux judge, The Guardian reported. Over the next six years, the fight had bounded between different legal jurisdictions, as the couple and environmental campaigners pleaded to keep the pond intact.
Environmental activists appealed to have the frogs simply evacuated, arguing that there would then be no need to fill the pond in, but to no avail. The Association Cistude Nature claims there are six protected species of frog in the pond.
The environmental group Société pour l’Étude et l’Aménagement de la nature dans le Sud-Ouest has declared intentions to appeal to the cour de cassation, the highest court in France. But the couple, under the threat of hefty fines — €150 ($256) per day since the order was issued — have begun emptying the pond, which is also home to fish, ducks and provides a temporary refuge for passing wildlife such as herons, deer and wild boar.
Emptying the pond however, also exposes the couple to a slew of environmental law violations which could result in two years in prison and a €150,000 fine ($256,000).
A petition launched to save the grenouilles — the French word for frogs — of Grignols reached over 91,000 signatures in two days.
The legal case marks the latest in a slew of legal actions taken against countryside noise in France. Last year, a couple lost a complaint against a crowing rooster and was asked to pay €1,000 ($1,700) in damages to the rooster’s owner. Legal action has also been taken against smelly cows, noisy cicadas and quacking ducks.
