Do people do mean things with free roosters?

[sydney1497]

Thank you for everyone’s comments and concern. I have one person to ask for help and then I will go the route of having my husband shoot and bury him. I cannot eat my pet even though he was mean to me. I know it’s not his fault... he is just doing a good job protecting his flock. It feels like a waste of life not to eat him, but I won’t be able to sleep for fear he could be treated inhumanely. Your responses have helped me a lot. Thank you again.

this is really late, but next time bring him to a farm sanctuary, they are usually willing to take roosters that would otherwise be subjected to death!

 

[LaFleche]

I know it’s not his fault...

But it is not your fault either, so don't beat yourself up. Nobody forced him to attack you.

...he is just doing a good job protecting his flock.

That is where I see rooster behaviour quite differently:

Attacking the person that raised him, feeds him and the flock daily and generally takes care of the flocks well-being is not a roosters job. By assaulting the well-known caregiver he is definitely not protecting his flock.

If a rooster is too dense to differentiate between a real danger to his flock and the daily caregiver there is no way to change that and it is just not worth the effort.

 

[Folly's place]

I too have killed and buried nasty cockerels, especially the bantams, who hardly have any meat for the freezer. I do sell nice cockerels, and some do have good homes. Feeding a family is not a bad end, for a bird who's had a nice life until that last few minutes. Much better than those poor commercial meat birds!
Human aggressive birds do not get rehomed here! In the past, I tried to 'reform' a few, and rehomed two of them, and in hindsight, am glad that nobody else was injured, and no lawsuits came of sending a nasty bird away.
Mary

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

But it is not your fault either, so don't beat yourself up. Nobody forced him to attack you.



That is where I see rooster behaviour quite differently:

Attacking the person that raised him, feeds him and the flock daily and generally takes care of the flocks well-being is not a roosters job. By assaulting the well-known caregiver he is definitely not protecting his flock.

If a rooster is too dense to differentiate between a real danger to his flock and the daily caregiver there is no way to change that and it is just not worth the effort.

I have hurt over this since it happened. I ended up giving him to a “friend,”. She had said that she might eat him if he was mean to her. After she had him for several days, she told me “he just layed down and died, I didn’t even get to eat him.” I don’t know for sure what she truly did to him, but I most definitely should have had my husband shoot him rather than go through what he may have went through with her. I won’t go into details. My hens were extremely sad for at least a week, and very disoriented. They then came to like me again.
Anyways, all of this just to say thank you so so so so much for your comment! I think I will be ok when I think of him now. He should have been nice to me. I give my chickens everything. My husband says we are down to about $500 an egg now as much as we have spent on spoiling them!

 

[Folly's place]

I love it when people say "you have all those free eggs"! Yah, right.
Good roosters are wonderful, and jerks just aren't worth feeding. We too started with an attack bird, our first rooster, and we too learned. You gave him a good life, and he decided otherwise, not your fault.
Mary