Austria's Supreme Court allows frogs to croak at night

A decades-long dispute over "night noise" between neighbours in Austria's Pashing community has ended. Austria's Supreme Court (OGH) has rejected an appeal from a neighbor suffering from insomnia and ruled that frogs in a neighbor's pond can continue to croak at night as these animals settled there on their own.

“Now it is certain that frogs can stay and keep croaking. The Supreme Court rejected the neighbor's appeal and upheld the Linz Land Court's decision, the publication said.

Earlier, the plaintiff said that he could not sleep with the window open because of the night croaking frogs in the pond of a neighbor. The district court of Thrawn ruled in favor of the first, ruling that the owner of the pond must reduce noise between 22:00 and 6:00 and pay court costs of up to €30,000. The examination confirmed the excess of the permissible noise level.

The owner of the pond tried to fix the situation: he released a pike into the pond, hoping to reduce the population of frogs, but it did not work. He managed to appeal the decision in Linz Land Court and won the case: the court ruled that frog croaking was a "natural phenomenon.".

“The winner was nature. She can't be silenced. Frogs croak, birds sing, bees buzz - this is part of the living environment, - said the representative of the Austrian Green Party Rudy Hemetsberger.