'My neighbours have 40 chickens and plan to slaughter pigs in the garden'

A man is baffled by his neighbour's ambitions after they announced they wanted to keep more than 40 chickens and slaughter pigs in their garden.

He lives in a rural area and he has just had new neighbours move in but he is unsure by their plans and thinks they do not have the space to carry out all of this.

The neighbours currently have just 10 chickens, a rooster and three piglets, so they plan to quadruple their number of chickens which he does not think is possible in their half-acre space.

But the man is most concerned about the at-home slaughtering which could leave renters horrified.

He thinks the neighbour's ambitions are too much (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Taking to Reddit, the man, who remained anonymous, explained: "The thing I take issue with in this case is the scale to which my new neighbours are planning to expand their activities.

"They plan to acquire 40 more chickens over the next few months, which I believe to be way too many. They did not realise the cost of paying to butcher their pigs before getting them, so now that they have them the new plan is to slaughter them at home, which they have zero experience with."

He added that there is only a weak fence in between the two properties so anyone could see the slaughtering if it took place in their garden.

"I'm considering suggesting they pick a date for the slaughter so I can block out the rental and ensure there are no guests present when they do it," he wrote.

"If that's not possible offer to pay a chunk of the cost (the same amount that I would lose from blocking out the rental) of a butcher to offset whatever it is that they can't afford- in exchange for a cut of the pork of course."

In an update to the post, he said he had spoken to the neighbours who were very receptive to his concerns and offered to delay the slaughters until after the holiday season and said they plan to build a private unit for the slaughtering.

His neighbours were receptive to his concerns (stock photo) (Getty Images/Collection Mix: Subjects RM)

In response, many in the comments said it is reasonable to coordinate dates for the slaughters to avoid anyone mistakenly viewing it.

One person wrote: "I think it's absolutely reasonable to coordinate slaughter dates. My area is much more spread out than yours and I still notify my neighbours when I'm going to slaughter just because it's a courteous thing to do."

While another pointed out: "My biggest concern with that many animals in that small of a space is the smell as they can attract rats and other vermin. Even if they move their slaughter date the issue of smell from the pigs may still wind up being an issue."

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