Think your neighbors are too loud? Try living next to Gazprom Arena.
The home of FC Zenit in St. Petersburg sparked outrage among nearby residents with a new bird-scaring system that local media described as “audiotorture.” Neighbors flooded police departments with noise complaints after the system went live late last week — emitting sounds of dying birds and gunfire.
“Children either can’t fall asleep or wake up asking ‘why are the birds suffering?’” the St. Petersburg fontanka.ru news website quoted one resident named Anastasia as saying on Saturday.
Stadium officials said they lowered the bird-scarer volume after neighbors’ complaints, but other residents say the noise has continued late into the night and can even be heard through soundproof windows.
“They promised to adjust the volume, but it sounds like it got louder today,” one of them, Pavel, told the varlamov.ru news aggregator on Monday.
FC Zenit did not say whether any birds were harmed in the recording of the sounds.
Meanwhile, the Moscow metro has installed almost 300 bird of prey stickers at 21 station lobbies to keep birds from flying into glass panes and to their deaths.
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