The croaking of amphibians has been deemed a “natural phenomenon”
The Supreme Court of Austria has ruled that frogs in the Austrian municipality of Pasching may continue to croak at night, the newspaper Heute reports.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a local resident suffering from insomnia, who had complained about a neighbor’s pond, claiming the frogs within it were too noisy. The district court in Traun, where the plaintiff first filed his complaint, initially ruled in his favor, ordering the pond owners to reduce the noise level, the newspaper notes.
An expert assessment confirmed that the noise levels exceeded permitted limits.
The pond owners challenged this ruling, appealing to the Regional Court of Linz, where they won the case. The court determined that the frogs had arrived in the pond on their own and that their croaking was a “natural phenomenon.”
The plaintiff subsequently took his case to the Supreme Court of Austria, which upheld the decision of the Linz Regional Court and dismissed the man’s appeal, the publication states.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court also pointed out that the frogs belong to a protected species and had settled in the pond of their own accord.
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