Did they abuse him?

[SourRoses]

I posted some weeks ago about our little neighbor drama. They got two roosters and set them up on the other side of the 6ft chain link fence from one of our runs (they have plenty of land and our coops are on the other, rear, fence line).
You guys warned me those roosters would be over here - so we took it to heart and stayed aware.
One day the white one got excited with his crowing and flapping and sure enough flew over here. Thankfully the girls were in the other run. We pounced and corralled the rooster and then I marched over to the neighbors so the guy could carry him back.
On the return walk the neighbor kinda chuckled about it, and so I chewed into him. I needed him to understand this was serious and I was serious about it.
I said, "I mean it, if he comes over here again, I won't be coming to get you, he'll be dead."
This was after I explained breeding purity and biosecurity (ok, it was more like I ranted about "parasites" "avian flu" "egg borne diseases" and I wasn't at all calm about it). I kept repeating, "Pen him up or clip his wings."
It's not like we didn't warn them the day they got those roosters and put them in such a terrible location!

The day after, I was at my car when I noticed the landlord in their driveway holding the white rooster and talking to them. I thought the rooster was making funny sounding noises and I wondered if he was taking him away. But it sounded more like pain, so then my brain painted me a picture of people who didn't know how to clip wings having done it wrong. I thought, "No, surely they have the internet on their phones, and they would have looked it up."

Fast forward to today, after not seeing the rooster for a while and thinking they must have just been removing him. Nope. He's back trotting the fence line with two half-length stubby wings.



I'm all for culling a problematic rooster, but not torturing it. When wing clipping is so simple to look up on the internet, with pictures?

My question here is, with livestock laws being different, would this constitute abuse legally?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They probably didn't like that it was temporary and opted to pinion his wings. That's the only thing I can think of.

I'm sure you could see if animal control would investigate, but you also have to understand that could possibly ruin your relationship with the neighbors

 

[nuthatched]

They probably didn't like that it was temporary and opted to pinion his wings. That's the only thing I can think of.

I'm sure you could see if animal control would investigate, but you also have to understand that could possibly ruin your relationship with the neighbors

x2. That's probably what happened, but pictures help.
I'd personally consider the relationship ruined already after the confrontation.
Op, it's not great that your neighbors set their chickens on the property line and it doesn't sound like they're very experienced but you likely (inadvertently) caused the the pinioning or full trimming. They're probably trying to avoid ever having you coming down on them about chickens again after your last encounter, I certainly would be.

 

[casportpony]

Fast forward to today, after not seeing the rooster for a while and thinking they must have just been removing him. Nope. He's back trotting the fence line with two half-length stubby wings.

It sounds like they trimmed all of the feathers on both wings instead of just the ten primary flight feathers on one wing. While this method is not attractive, it's not inhumane.

They probably didn't like that it was temporary and opted to pinion his wings. That's the only thing I can think of.

I doubt they did this.

I'm sure you could see if animal control would investigate, but you also have to understand that could possibly ruin your relationship with the neighbors

Why call animal control? We haven't seen what the rooster looks like.

but pictures help.

Pictures would be helpful.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Chickens who don't like being held will scream like they're being murdered even for a simple wellness check. Pictures are needed to confirm, but it sounds like he just got an ugly trim. Cutting half the feathers will give you half a wing. Even if they did pinion the wings a freshly pinioned wing would be fairly obvious since it is invasive, involves cutting the bone and a white rooster would definitely have some blood stains. Anyone please correct me if I am wrong, but far as I know pinioning is still legal in the US?

 

[casportpony]

Anyone please correct me if I am wrong, but far as I know pinioning is still legal in the US?

It is legal, though it's usually done when birds are young.

 

[nuthatched]

Chickens who don't like being held will scream like they're being murdered even for a simple wellness check. Pictures are needed to confirm, but it sounds like he just got an ugly trim. Cutting half the feathers will give you half a wing. Even if they did pinion the wings a freshly pinioned wing would be fairly obvious since it is invasive, involves cutting the bone and a white rooster would definitely have some blood stains. Anyone please correct me if I am wrong, but far as I know pinioning is still legal in the US?

I had to full trim a hens wings since she kept flying out if the run during Coyote pup season, it's not pretty, our neighbors at the time thought I cut the wings off.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I had to full trim a hens wings since she kept flying out if the run during Coyote pup season, it's not pretty, our neighbors at the time thought I cut the wings off.

Yep growing up in farm country most of the farmers did not care about pretty and just gave the wings a quick clip. It definitely does give the half wing look.

 

[SourRoses]

It's not just feathers, it's the entire end of the wing.
I never told them to cut off the chickens wings, I said to clip them, which is such a commonly documented procedure that I can't even imagine why they wouldn't take a minute to learn how to do it.

Pictures sure would make it easier to have this conversation, but there's no way I could get a good one at this distance and through so much foliage. We live in the country in an area of mini farms, so everyone is supposed to respect the rule of fences.

@nuthatched
Because they don't respect fences or heed our early warning, I needed to make sure he respected me, and I don't regret it. I refuse to take on any guilt for their errors.
If you told a parent their child was behaving very badly and they needed to keep it at home or discipline it, you are in no way responsible for them abusing the child. We are not responsible for micromanaging other's actions.
The only time someone has to be afraid of what I might say is when they're endangering my family or my animals. Then I go full momma bear. You can't convince me that's wrong.

The nature of the wing operation would have involved blood. That's probably why he wasn't out in the yard for a while.
I've considered the idea of calling animal control, but before I put much thought into the ramifications I wanted to know if they would even consider it abuse or if the nature of livestock modified the definitions. I also wondered if there was someone who might pipe up with a definition of wing clipping of which I was not aware. I'm don't know if this counts as pinioning or not.

 

[casportpony]

Source:
https://swanlovers.net/category/pinioned-or-full-wing/