Maurice the cockerel, France’s most famous bird, whose piercing dawn call sparked neighbours to take legal action over noise pollution, has finally had his case heard in court.

A local court in Rochefort has begun examining the case of a dispute over the bird between neighbours on the Île d’Oléron. Two pensioners complained that Maurice was making abnormally high levels of noise that disturbed the peace at their second home on the island when he crowed every morning at 6.30am.

The dispute, which has run for more than two years, has been billed as a symbolic standoff between two ways of life: on one side are the islanders on the picturesque Île d’Oléron off the Atlantic coast, who say they have always kept chickens; on the other are people arriving from other areas of France to invest in second homes on the island.

Maurice has received support from all over France through a petition defending his crowing; in recent months his fame has been used to draw attention to key causes, such as posing this winter wearing a yellow hi-vis vest in favour of the gilets jaunes protesters.

Supporters have created an “I am Maurice” banner on social media and and even the head of one local authority, Dominique Bussereau, tweeted his solidarity.

Tous solidaires avec le coq Maurice et je ne plaisante pas! @departement17 — Dominique Bussereau (@Dbussereau) July 4, 2019

Although Maurice was not in court, some supporters stood outside with cockerels in their arms.

The couple who filed the legal case for “abnormal noise disturbance” were described in court as quiet pensioners aged 65 and 70, of modest income. They had bought a second home on the Île d’Oléron and complained of the noise every morning at 6.30am. Their lawyer said they had bought their house in 2004, long before Maurice was born in 2017. They were not in court because of the intense media interest in the case. They wanted the court to rule that the noise must stop, the lawyer said.

Lawyers for Maurice’s owner, Corinne Fesseau, argued that his crowing did not constitute “abnormal noise” on the island.

The arguments in court focused on whether or not Saint-Pierre d’Oléron, Maurice’s home town on the island, which has 7,000 residents in winter and 35,000 in summer, could be described as a rural area or not. Lawyers for the retired couple said it was considered a built-up urban area.

A verdict is due on 5 September.

In 1995, faced with a similar case that led to a death notice being served on a cockerel, a French appeal court declared it was impossible to stop a rooster crowing.

“The chicken is a harmless animal so stupid that nobody has succeeded in training it, not even the Chinese circus,” that judgment said.