I'm in the camp of not treating roosters as pets. If you look through all the posts here on aggressive roosters, you'll see a common theme...."He was our favorite chick, always the friendliest. We loved him and cuddled him and hand fed him and let him sit on our shoulders. Out of the blue when he hit X months old, he attacked us out of nowhere". I'm not kidding, there are literally hundreds of those stories.
My theory is roosters are livestock, not pets. I raise mine to be respectful of me. They move out of my way when I walk through the coop. I move slowly and nicely and always give them a chance to get out of my way. I don't handle them or pet them or hand feed them. I let them call the hens for treats and take care of the hens....that's their job, not being my pets.
If it reaches the point where you have to use pepper spray, I'd say don't bother. My birds are for my enjoyment and relaxation, and I'd never be able to trust a bird like that again.
I was in my coop reaching for a nest in a very difficult to reach spot recently. My knee's been giving me fits and getting up off my knees isn't always pretty
. My big rooster was in the coop while I was down on my knees. It actually occurred to me I'd be very, very vulnerable to him at that time. Did he do anything? Nope. Would I have ever done that with a rooster that had ever shown any sign of aggression? Oh heck no.
