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.” 
 
 Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. 

 HILL DISTRICT (KDKA) – Roosters can be loud and aggressive, but for some in a Hill District neighborhood, they can also be elusive. And one man in particular has really had his feathers’ ruffled. 
 
 Several roosters and chickens, over a half dozen years, have appeared on property owned by Henry Gaston on Wylie Avenue. Nowadays, only one rooster seems to have taken up homestead there. 
 
 Neighbors have complained, and Gaston has been hauled into court. 
 
 “I own no roosters; I have no pets,” he says. 
 
 Neighbor Sharon Hughes is among the many voicing complaints about the rooster. 
 
 “It doesn’t know when to “coo coo.” Most roosters “coo coo” in the morning for five or 10 minutes, he’s all day and maybe through the night if he feels like it. You can’t get any peace; I want the rooster gone,” said Hughes. 
 
 You don’t expect to hear a rooster crowing in the inner city. In fact, the bird isn’t even allowed in the city of Pittsburgh. 
 
 But neighbors have taken his picture and a KDKA photographer captured him on video earlier on Thursday. But, so far, no one has been able to trap the animal. 
 
 KDKA’s Brenda Waters: “Have you heard the rooster?” 
 
 Gaston: “I’ve heard him.” 
 
 Waters: “Does it bother you?” 
 
 Gaston: “I like the rooster.” 
 
 Waters: “So, you haven’t been bringing him here?” 
 
 Gaston: “I don’t know how they get here. I don’t bring them to the property.” 
 
 Gaston says he has called animal control, and even the zoo, but no one can seem to help him. Meanwhile, his neighbors remain frustrated. 
 
 “He makes such loud noises, every day, all day. Whenever he decides he wants to get up everyone else has to get up,” Hughes said. 
 
 A judge has given Gaston 30 days to capture the rooster or face a fine. 
 
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 The city will penalize Henry Gaston in 30 days for his fowl if he doesn’t figure out how to trap it. 
 
 The rooster’s piercing calls have beset neighbors near Wylie Aveneue and Roberts Street in the Hill District for years, and because it seems to live on Mr. Gaston’s property, it has put him in violation of the city’s ban against roosters. (Hens are allowed, with conditions.) But the bird has evaded numerous efforts to capture it. 
 
 “Your honor, I’ve tried to catch him,” Mr. Gaston said Wednesday, sitting for the third time since July before District Judge Oscar Petite. “I have called animal control and they have sent people out, and I called the zoo, but they said they didn’t have the capabilities to catch a rooster.” 
 
 Assistant city solicitor Adam Rosenthal was able to capture the bird with his camera earlier that morning along the grassy strip by the sidewalk on the Roberts side of the lot. 
 
 “He was just sitting there chillin’,’” said Mr. Rosenthal. 
 
 In July, Sharon Hughes, a nearby neighbor, pleaded in court for relief but said at the time she doubted the bird could be caught if the city’s animal control team had failed. 
 
 On Wednesday, Mr. Gaston, who claims he does not own the bird, said he tried poisoning corn he gave to the rooster. 
 
 “You tried to poison it?” Judge Petite said, startled. “What kind of poison?” 
 
 “Rat poison.” 
 
 “It’s a rooster,” the judge said. The bird, which has been wily enough to avoid being caught, “is probably smart enough not to eat rat poison. What’s wrong with throwing a net over him? Get some buddies and corner him.” 
 
 Mr. Gaston didn’t offer a thought on that idea. 
 
 “You can’t tell me that for the rest of his life he’s just going to hang out in your yard. People are tired of going out there,” the judge said. 
 
 “Obviously, the neighborhood is very upset,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “I spoke with animal control and they said someone with a rooster issue on the South Side caught it by feeding it in the same spot every time and then threw a net over it.” 
 
 “So someone else has thought of a net,” Judge Petite said, looking at Mr. Gaston. 
 
 “I’ve tried my best,” Mr. Gaston said. 
 
 “You haven’t tried a net,” Judge Petite said. “Feed it if that’s what it takes to catch it.” 
 
 “Put corn out in the same spot every day” as a lure, Mr. Rosenthal said. “I’d give him 30 more days if he tries that.” 
 
 “Thirty days?” Judge Petite asked, and Mr. Gaston nodded. 
 
 “OK,” the judge said. “Hopefully, [if caught] he will be transferred to a farm. We don’t want the bird euthanized. That’s a nice-looking bird.” Then he put his finger in the air and said, “This is the last continuance.” 
 
 Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
– A Pittsburgh man has been given one final chance to catch a noisy rooster that has plagued his neighborhood for years. At a court hearing Wednesday, District Judge Oscar Petite ordered Henry Gaston to find a way to trap the rooster that lives on or near his property and is notorious for crowing at all hours, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The judge seemed horrified to learn that Gaston—who claims he doesn't own the bird—had tried leaving out corn laced with rat poison. "What's wrong with throwing a net over him?" Petite said. "Get some buddies and corner him." Hens are permitted in the city of Pittsburgh, but roosters are not allowed, CBS notes. Gaston, who has faced several rooster-related hearings this year, told the court that animal control had also failed to catch the wily bird, and the zoo "said they didn’t have the capabilities to catch a rooster." Petite said he would give Gaston another 30 days, after which he would face penalties including a possible fine if the bird was still free. The judge said he hoped the rooster would be transferred to a farm. "We don't want the bird euthanized," he said. "That's a nice-looking bird." After a hearing in July, a neighbor who sometimes gives the bird peanuts told the Post-Gazette that "Chicky" would never be captured. "You won't catch him," she said. "This rooster is smarter than all of us." (Chickens can be odd form of protest, too.)