AIBU to think that if you hate animals you shouldn't move to the countryside?

[shiklah]

I live in a very rural community which has become popular with commuters in the last 5 years. Over the last 18 months the following complaints have featured heavily on the local WhatsApp and Facebook groups:

Cows blocking the road for 10 mins (they do this twice a day and have for hundred of years as they go in for milking)
Escapee sheep roaming the verges and traffic islands
Cockerels crowing
Church Bells

Our neighbours moved in Jan 2016 and have built a conservatory overlooking our field. They have complained:

A ram was tupping ewes in the field
Many Sheep gave birth in the field
A sheep had a prolapsed and was attended by the vet in the field (the vet delivered 2 healthy lambs, revived them and saved the ewe, it was awesome and brilliant and they are all healthy and happy but apparently it spoiled mothers day breakfast)
A fox killed a rabbit and ate it in our field
A ferral cat lives in the hedge at the side of our field
A sheep pooed when Mr Neighbour was eating breakfast

Th least one was reported to me at 7pm this eve when I was getting out of my car at the end of a 60 hour working week. He DROVE to my house to tell me a sheep pooed in his view whilst he was eating breakfast in his conservatory that he built, overlooking my field, that has been their since before my house was built, in 1762. I literally don't know know what to say to these idiots any more. AIBU to simply laugh in their faces and move on with my day

I have had wine and am feeling frazzled

SimonBridges Sun 24-Jun-18 10:23:36

I thought you weren’t allowed to use a loft space that had resident bats.

We've been happily co-existing for over 20 years.

OP just tell them that you've been thinking things over and understand that they don't like animals spoiling their view etc, so you're getting rid of the animals and turning the field next to their house into a campsite, and to launch the campsite you're holding a festival there first.

I would pay to see their faces if you tell them that.

Did you know that although they look identical but are 2 species of pipistrelle? I did a research project when I was at uni that identified a new divergent species - it was so exciting. One night DH (aged 20) was off to a party and I said I wasn't going because I was headed to a forest to chase bats in the dark with a huge fishing net, catch them, tag them and monitor them. When he turned to me, eyes aglow and said

"I want IN"

I knew he was the one for me. My soul mate. My man. We stayed for 6 days, tagging bats, got the data, came home and never left each others side. I fucking love bats.

Love all the ideas

Thank you, love this thread, so much kindness.

Oh wow, now that's great! Did Mr N ever pick the wrong people to suggest chiropterocide to.

This is the perfect time for sitting by a window watching bats flit across the sky, by the way - still light enough to see them. (Maybe down south you'd want to be a bit earlier?)

I like the old name 'flittermouse'.

Aww, shiklah, no wonder you love bats, that’s so sweet.

I also love the term flittermouse.

landmarkcreations.com/inflatable-products-gallery/inflatable-stage-props/item/sheep-dolly-l1783

Get one of these and point the arse end at their conservatory.

OMG, what has the man got against bats?! I have been following this thread with interest as we have a small holding with ponies and sheep and we have heard some daft things but I will go terminator on your neighbour's ass if he touches the bats! I was so happy when we moved here to find hundreds of bats flying around at night. DH wandered outside one evening looking for me, to find me standing in the front garden with my eyes shut and hands held out in front of me as bats swooped all around me. "What on earth are you doing?" he asked. "Hush," I said. "And you have to call me Khaleesi from now on."

Very small, furry non-fire breathing dragons?

Ahaha. This thread is awesome. Not farming related but years ago I went on a school trip to Mt Ruapehu (I’m from New Zealand). A few months earlier the mountain had been erupting some ash cloudes. Anyhow we got to go on a tour of one of the posh hotels, where the manager told us that during the eruption some of the tourists would call the front desk to complain about the noise of the sonic boom from the volcano. 😮

I used to work for the local council in a rural market town. We had complaints about cows being let out into the fields next to houses and birds singing in the trees next to houses. Houses that had been built hundreds of years after the farm and decades after the trees were planted.

The number of complaints about church bells being rung to mark the millennium ran into high double figures. An event that happens once every 1000 years and lasts for 5 minutes but no, the "disgusted of " were not having it so out came the green ink and CAPITAL LETTERS. Deep joy.

Bahahaha. I used to work in a council call centre and someone once made a complaint about the rubbish dump being messy. No complaints about cows on the road though. Probably because this was rural New Zealand and not really a popular area for people to relocate to from the cities.

Some people have no sense!

@Errol, I do voluntary work with bats, and we were taught that the way to distinguish between mouse poo and bat poo is to crush it. Bat poo sparkles - it's a great way to get the kids on board!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your responses so far. We've had a few nominations for this thread to be moved to classics, so we'll be moving it there shortly.

Ah... church bells...

Years back I lived in a city and a central church opposite the house had struck bells rather than rung ones. The guy who ran the place was rather crackers and used to practice badly done covers of pop songs on the bells. It drove us insane and we did have a word at one point - but we are talking hours long badly done Tina Turner covers with multiple mistakes on badly tuned (can you even tune a bell? God knows, it was off key anyway) bells.

Some nice country rung bells - no problem at all.

I'm chuckling, I agree. Like those who move to where I am and complain about smells coming from fields! 😂

Loving this thread!

Its not an animal one but I’m reminded of the young men in a huge and very shiny mercedes who stopped me in the lane and asked me where the road back to the nearest town was (about 15 miles away...). I pointed them back up the road we were on and they said no, they’d just come this way and needed the return route.

Slowly it dawned on me that they thought they were on a one way street! Took a while to persuade them that this really was a single track road and they would need to turn around and go back the way they had come. I’m still amazed that they’d managed to get so far without meeting anyone going the other way!

Curry that’s brilliant

@curry my American relatives have constant heartattacks with the roads round here in rural Somerset.

Even more so when I explained what a national speed limit sign was.

Now that we are going off the animal ones.........
Someone moved into my village and thought the street lights had broken down. It took them a few days to realise that we don't have any.

Some v good friends of ours arrived with almost no petrol - hadn't occurred to them to fill up and they were flying on fumes! The nearest petrol station is about 15 miles away and DH had to syphon some off for them - they couldn't believe it!

I like them very much thou so wasn't wound up!

I live in a rural area and a family have moved into the village about 18 months ago. So far they have requested people sign petitions to have the village pub closed due to noise, the kennels closed because the dogs sometimes bark too noisily and the horse rescue place closed because the donkeys are loud. They haven't had much luck!

This thread has made it onto an art blog....

www.sandjfineart.co.uk/2018/06/26/cottage-industry

one up on the daily hate mail!