Wily Wylie Street rooster outsmarts all who try to catch him

Sharon Hughes

Sharon Hughes has photo prints that depict a rooster that comes onto her property.

By Diana Nelson Jones / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Roosters aren’t allowed in the city, but tell that to the one on Henry Gaston’s property on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District.
This rooster, which crows at midnight and at all other hours, according to neighbor Sharon Hughes, has evaded animal control’s efforts to catch it for years. It has landed Mr. Gaston in magistrate’s court multiple times, and he was back before District Judge Oscar Petite on Wednesday.
City housing inspector Roberta Bullock told the judge that Mr. Gaston was in violation of the urban agriculture code, which does not allow roosters — only a certain number of hens based on the size of a property — and that the lot is overgrown with weeds.
“The weeds, that’s one thing,” said Ms. Hughes, “but this rooster is the real problem. It’s my alarm clock” at 3 a.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and all hours of the day. She lives across the street. “I taped it.”
“I want to hear it,” Judge Petite said.
Ms. Hughes dug the recorder out of her purse and turned it on. Within seconds, a piercing cry sounded, definitely a rooster. Then another. The screech punctuated the ensuing conversation, prompting giggles from people waiting for their cases to be heard.
“It comes in my yard,” she said. “There were kittens born on my porch and the rooster was playing with them.”
Judge Petite’s eyebrows shot upward, and he said, “I’d like to see a rooster playing with kittens.”
He asked Mr. Gaston to respond, and Mr. Gaston said, enunciating each syllable slowly, “I do not own any roosters. How am I supposed to get rid of something the professionals can’t catch?”
“If I lived there,” Judge Petite told him, “it wouldn’t take three years to get rid of that bird.”
“I’ve lived there 27 years and I am really sick of it,” Ms. Hughes said. “I’ve got a gun but I don’t want to shoot it. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“Go ahead and shoot it,” Mr. Gaston told her.
“You shoot it!” she shot back.
The district judge turned to Mr. Gaston and said, “How much time for the weeds? A week, two weeks?”
Mr. Gaston nodded.
“And you’ve got 30 days to get rid of that bird,” the district judge told him.
Later, back at the Wylie Avenue property, which was Mr. Gaston’s mother’s — he lives in Homewood — he said he has tried to catch the rooster and that he chases it off when he sees it, but he allowed that the property has been favored by roosters for decades and continued to maintain that they are not his birds.
“Why am I accountable for something that isn’t mine?” he said.
In the grass near a thicket of weeds and small trees, someone had sprinkled pinched-off pieces of wheat bread. A neighbor, Ruth Johnson, pulled up in her car and, after chatting with Mr. Gaston, got out carrying a bag of peanuts. She said she often stops to give the rooster peanuts.
“He knows me,” she said, peering into the overgrowth and calling, “Here Chicky!”
Mr. Gaston admits it will be a challenge to comply with the judge’s order in 30 days. Whether his or not, this wily rooster on Wylie Avenue has been around this property for a long time.
Ms. Hughes doubts the rooster will be captured. “There have been three or four hearings and animal control gave up. If that bird gets caught, I think it would be a miracle.”
Ms. Johnson agrees.
“You won’t catch him,” she said. “This rooster is smarter than all of us.”

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