Want to raise a parakeet in public? Looking to play your phonograph really, really loud between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.? Desire to build a family mausoleum in the Purcell cemetery?

While these questions may seem odd, the Purcell Code of Ordinances has rules about all of them.

Though many city residents may be aware of the more common codes governing local elections or the local sales tax rate, the current code has several ordinances many would consider to be obscure, outdated or both.

One such code, Section 10-142, which concerns dog licensing, registration and tags, dates back to at least 1978.

“A lifetime charge as set by the council for every male or female dog more than six months of age is hereby levied upon the owner of any such dog kept or harbored within the city,” an excerpt reads.

However, the city does not currently enforce this code.

If it were to be enforced, the code mandates owners register their dog(s) with the city, bringing along any corresponding vaccination certificates.

The city clerk or a “designee” would then give the owner an original receipt upon payment of the fee and issue a dog tag, which “shall constitute a license for the dog.”

Exceptions to the fee mandate are made for service dogs, dogs for sale in kennels or pet shops, dogs brought to participate in dog shows and dogs brought and kept within city limits for 15 days or less.

In the 1978 version of the code, the fee was $1 and was to be paid annually.

Another ordinance, Section 10-89, which also dates back to at least 1978, designates the entire area within city limits as a “bird sanctuary.”

“It is unlawful to hunt, trap, or shoot, or to attempt to shoot or molest in any manner, any bird or wild fowl or to rob bird nests or wild fowl nests,” an excerpt reads.

However, the code does indicate a legal recourse for dealing with starlings or similar birds found to be “congregating in such numbers in a particular locality, such that they constitute a nuisance or menace to health or property in the opinion of the proper health authorities of the city.”

Starlings in particular are mentioned as they are considered an invasive species, according to the wildlife services department within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Starlings are known to have caused millions of dollars of damage to certain kinds of crops and can transmit or amplify bacterial, fungal, parasitical and viral pathogens.

According to the code, the “proper health authorities of the city” shall meet with representatives of the Gladiolus Garden Club or Humane Society, if existing within the city, to determine a course of action to abate the nuisance birds.

While the Humane Society is a well-known, internationally recognized organization, the Gladiolus Garden Club is the local Purcell chapter affiliated with the larger Oklahoma Garden Clubs, whose mission is to “promote the love of gardening, floral design, and civic and environmental responsibility” amongst its members.

The Gladiolus Garden Club in Purcell was founded in 1946, but its members no longer meet regularly.

If the city health authorities in collaboration with the Gladiolus Garden Club or the Humane Society can find “no satisfactory alternative” to remove or reduce the nuisance birds, “the birds may be destroyed in such number and in such manner as is deemed advisable by the health authorities under the supervision of the police chief of the city,” according to the city code.

Despite Purcell being a designated “bird sanctuary,” anyone desiring to raise a parakeet must do so “out of the public view,” according to Section 10-87 of the city code.

As of 1989, mausoleums and crypts are prohibited within the confines of city cemeteries, according to Section 22-9.

Though most people are aware of city rules regarding loud music in the middle of the night, many are likely unaware that phonographs are among the prohibited midnight noisemakers listed in Section 34-28 (B).

Furthermore, “the conduct or holding of public dances in violation of the ordinances of the city,” the sale of “unwholesome food or drink” and the “keeping of a place where persons gamble, whether by cards, slot machines, punch boards or otherwise” are all considered “public nuisances,” under Section 34-64.

Another city ordinance prohibits the abandonment of refrigerators and iceboxes in places accessible to children, according to Section 46-114.

The code, which dates back to 1991, specifically refers to any refrigerator, icebox or ice chest “of a capacity of 1 1/2 cubic feet or more.” Anyone guilty of willful refrigerator abandonment in a place accessible to children “shall be deemed negligent as a matter of law and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

In short, no pretending to be Indiana Jones escaping an atomic bomb test for the kiddos.