"Austrian court orders farmer to reinstate cow bells on his cattle"

Spotted by View From The Solent in The Telegraph:

Residents of the then medium-sized town of Stallhofen once complained that the constant clanging of the bells as the cows moved around at night had kept them awake. "You could not sleep and your nerves were raw," one Stallhofen resident told the Austrian Press news wire.

Of particular annoyance, locals said, was the loud echoing, clanking noise the bells made when cows fed from metal feed troughs. Cows carried the large bells so that farmers could track them down if they have wandered off, and their chiming acted as a useful early warning sign for people walking their dogs.

The farmer was subjected to a court order to silence the bells, the cheapest method being to simply remove them, even though he argued that they were part of Alpine culture and actually had a soothing effect on people. However, following a series of grisly deaths, a smaller group of residents has now won another court order to have the bells reinstated.

The farmer's arguments about replacement costs failed to win over District Judge Erich Kundegraber who visited the now small south-eastern town cowering in foothills of the Alps. The judge found that as the cattle were a menace to the public, the bells had to come back.