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Stay your course, be strong, you're doing the right thing. It's not always easy especially the first time. Those least involved with animal care and least educated and experienced in it are usually those who blame the person rather than recognize the need to remove a dangerous animal. If they learnt more about it they would arrive at the same conclusion.
If they think they're being kind to animals, perhaps they could try to imagine how some of the more long-term devoted and attached chicken lovers felt when they finally realized they had to cull a rooster they'd tried so hard with. If so many truly dedicated and experienced and educated chicken keepers find no other way, perhaps your family naysayers could consider the situation you're in with fresh understanding. You are responsible for human life in this matter. Condemnation's all easy now, and I'm sure their intentions are good and they think they're right to try to save him, but what if your nasty rooster maims someone? Even if you re-home him, the behaviour will continue. Do they think you can just re-home a dog that's mauled, to fix its problems? Same thing.
My family initially protested a bunch of rehomings and cullings of various hens/roosters, but if I'd let them have it their way, I'd have a leucosis riddled and aggressive flock. I'm the one who feeds, tends, breeds and manages them, I'm the one who deals with ill or injured birds, I'm the one who is responsible if we start hatching nasty sorts, so my word on it is the final one. Heck, I'm the one who pays for them! I've invited other family members to step up to whatever position of authority they want concerning the chickens, since they were a family venture initially that fell to me to maintain, but since the job includes educating yourself and consistent effort, they elected to leave me in charge. Originally it was everyone trying to have an equal say without any effort or education behind it... Chaos. In some situations democracy fails, lol!
In future you'll likely get better at spotting warning signs. It's a complete mentality in my experience, not just a single separate behavioural aspect in an otherwise 'good' bird. We have a responsibility to ourselves, our families, our flocks, our communities, and future generations of both humans and chickens, which we must uphold with what we do in our lifetimes. If I'm having a slightly hard time paying due respect to faults in a rooster due to other excellent qualities he may have, even if he's not violent, all I have to do is think of my hens. They have a huge and finite reproductive burden on them and I've got to organize things right to maximize the best potential of every bird and every genepool in the families I maintain, so they can't be wasted on anything. No half-decent roosters. Only excellence will do, or I'd be wasting my best hen's reproductive lives, and a huge amount of my time and effort. You're on the right track, I hope your family comes to understand that. Best wishes.
