OXNARD : Neighbors Object to Parakeets’ Talk

Ever since 13 parakeets moved in across the street last year, Edwin Brenner says sleeping has been for the birds.

“The birds make a very strange, continuous sound like squawking, chattering or something that is not quite the normal sound birds make,” said Brenner, an Oxnard Shores resident who said he is awakened by the shrill noise every morning at dawn. “It’s not like a dog barking or an airplane passing overhead. When something continues on and on, you can’t go back to sleep.”

Brenner and two neighbors have filed complaints about the racket under an Oxnard ordinance that says “barks, cries, whines, or other sounds” are considered a nuisance when they “unreasonably disturb” two or more people who are not related.

Don Becker lives next door to the parakeets in the 5200 block of Sandpiper Way. Becker dismissed as “a joke” two separate rulings by Ventura County’s Animal Regulation Department that the sounds do not constitute a public nuisance.

“What kind of game are we playing here?” said Becker, a salesman. “I have to put earplugs in my ears to sleep in the morning and then turn up my clock radio so I can hear the alarm.” Art Leonard, the birds’ owner, has hired an attorney who said he plans to block the neighbors’ attempts to hold a third hearing--this time with Oxnard’s animal control department.

“We contend that Mr. Becker is squawking louder than the birds,” said Ventura attorney Mark Hancock. “We plan on going into court on the basis that a request for a third hearing is a form of harassment of Mr. Leonard.”

Lisa Jenkins, Oxnard’s senior animal control officer, said the hearing originally set for this week was postponed until September to give Hancock time to familiarize himself with the case.