Cakes baked in the shape of chickens are displayed at the 7th International Tea Expo of Western China in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday. Other animal-themed cakes are also on display, including ducks and squirrels. Photo: IC

A French court has allowed a group of ducks in the southwest of the country to keep on quacking after complaints from neighbors over their noisy behavior.

A couple who bought a neighboring property last year had complained of "significant noise" from the group of around 50 ducks and geese kept in the backgarden of Dominique Douthe, 67, in the town of Soustons.

She told AFP that the ducks had been given a stay of execution by the court in the town of Dax in a decision issued Tuesday evening, adding that she was "relieved" by the ruling.

The case is one of several that have been cast as an attack on the rights of church bells to ring, cows to moo, and donkeys to bray throughout rural France.

AFP