EVANS CITY — Pam Seitz of Evans Street researched owning chickens and studied the borough ordinances before buying six birds from a farm store.

She was told all were hens, but four of the chicks turned out to be roosters.

“They’re pets. I’m not going to slaughter them,” Seitz said of the roosters Wednesday afternoon.

While the roosters do crow loudly at certain times during the day, no smell emanated Wednesday from her backyard, where a large chicken coop with both an enclosed area and an open-air fenced-in area accommodate the birds.

Her next-door neighbor, Pat Dunbar, complained to the borough council two years ago and again on Tuesday night, saying the noise and smell are constant.

Dunbar told the council members that she cannot walk to her shed on certain days “because the smell about knocks you over.”

Dunbar asked the council to change the animal ordinance to prohibit roosters and limit the number of hens allowed.

But Seitz said the roosters were an accident, and she has no intention of replacing them. She said she got the birds four-and-a-half years ago, and the average life span of a chicken is six years.

Seitz was tearful when asked her reaction to Dunbar’s accusations, which she said greatly upset her because the birds are not a nuisance.

“There’s no smell,” Seitz said. “I have friends and family over all the time.”

She said her chicken coop is kept clean.

“People have said they would sleep in my chicken coop,” Seitz said.

The only smell coming from the coop Wednesday afternoon was a slight aroma of the wood shavings Seitz uses on the floor of the coop.

Seitz said the droppings are disposed of in the garbage or given to a farmer who uses them for fertilizer.

“There has never been a stench, ever,” she said.

Seitz said Dunbar never talked to her to complain about the birds after first complaining to council two years ago.

“I think she’s bitter, or has nothing better to do,” she said.

Regarding the crowing roosters, Seitz said she puts them in the enclosed part of the coop at dark and releases them no earlier than 8 a.m.

If she sees the Dunbars out in their yard, she puts the roosters in the enclosure so they will not crow.

“They’re getting older and they don’t even crow as much,” Seitz said.

She said she bought $25 “crow collars” for the roosters after Dunbar’s first complaint to council in 2014, but one became entangled with the bird’s beak and caused its face to swell up.

Many of the other residents in the neighborhood like the chickens, Seitz said. Two other neighbors have chickens, and one is building a chicken coop, she said.

“I thought this was all settled,” she said. “I’m moving when I retire.”

Dunbar could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.