LOS ANGELES county CA under bird quarantine :(

[roosterhavoc]

Updated: Three more cases reported this week, two in SB, one in Riverside: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...p7pUO_T90MuVTCX9344StwKtk8JnagvnI8uferbZCw!!/

Those cases, as well as over 90 percent of those in the 2019 and 2018 table, are why people blame "backyard exhibition" chicken owners. Call it 'gamebird' if you want, but applied to chickens, it's a fighting rooster, and there's no excuse for breeding for or otherwise supporting this illegal, dirtbag practice.

“Gamebirds” are quail, pheasant etc.. They’re called gamefowl and breeding and owning them isn’t illegal. The very chickens you own most likely have some small percentage of gamefowl in them from many years ago. Fighting them is illegal yes that’s obvious.
To call breeding them a dirtbag practice is a bit extreme. I’d put the health of my birds and the care they receive up against anyone on this site.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Help me understand what the attraction is to having them: They're flighty, aggressive and in hens, poor egg producers.

I have a Gamefowl hen. She’s a really sweet girl and she’s a great mom. She is very self sufficient and would do well free ranging if I had the space. From what I’ve seen of those who keep American Gamefowl their birds aren’t flighty.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Respectfully, @roosterhavoc there are many stats/news stories in the last year that “backyard exhibition chickens” ( what the USDA is classifying the vast majority of bird type being found with vnd) are roosters that are being bred for sale.
Now the for sale part, of course anyone who was breeding roosters for untoward uses would never cop to it, so that leaves things a bit untransparent.
There are lots of news stories out there about vnd being found mostly on property of people who have 200 roosters next to another farm with say 400 roosters in for instance Perris or Norco.
Maybe you could educate us as to why a person would have 200 roosters on a piece of property being bred for sale.

 

[Aunt Angus]

There are many people on this site who keep, breed, and enjoy their gamebirds. I, fir one, won't lump them in with obvious fighting bird operations. I don't have them, personally, but I know some who do. They are supposedly smart and great mamas.

Let's not lose focus here: vND is the enemy. It's here regardless of where it came from. We need the gov't to do a better job of humanely and responsibly address this problem.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I have a Gamefowl hen. She’s a really sweet girl and she’s a great mom. She is very self sufficient and would do well free ranging if I had the space. From what I’ve seen of those who keep American Gamefowl their birds aren’t flighty.

They’re the furthest thing from flighty. I think people read the descriptions from the birds sold at hatcheries “flighty” meaning they do well against predators etc..

 

[roosterhavoc]

Respectfully, @roosterhavoc there are many stats/news stories in the last year that “backyard exhibition chickens” ( what the USDA is classifying the vast majority of bird type being found with vnd) are roosters that are being bred for sale.
Now the for sale part, of course anyone who was breeding roosters for untoward uses would never cop to it, so that leaves things a bit untransparent.
There are lots of news stories out there about vnd being found mostly on property of people who have 200 roosters next to another farm with say 400 roosters in for instance Perris or Norco.
Maybe you could educate us as to why a person would have 200 roosters on a piece of property being bred for sale.

I will admit it doesn’t look good but I have no idea since I don’t live near those two yards/farms. I wonder though how a farm with 200 roosters and the neighbor with 400 roosters is spreading everything around? Supposedly these birds are dying quickly once infected. I would be more concerned with all the people who constantly treat their birds with antibiotics. They passed laws banning the use of these antibiotics in chickens without a prescription from a vet. Does anyone here break that law? You don’t have to answer I already know. Imo this just props up weak birds that are more susceptible to all kinds of diseases.

I’ll let you guys get back to your thread. Just know not everyone that owns gamefowl are breaking laws.

 

[Humsi]

The pathetic part for me is the lack of communication between the government and the population. The only reason I know anything about this is because of people here, and I live right outside the quarantine zone, and travel into it quite often.

They put a lot more effort into notifying people about the dangers of the Asian Citrus Psyllid a few years ago when there was a problem with it. We were nowhere near any of the hot spots, but had fliers mailed to us and finally found one taped to the door explaining what was going on. Everyone (at least in my neighborhood) got a flier, whether you had a citrus tree or not.

Why can they do that for trees and not animals? I don't get it.

 

[Humsi]

I will admit it doesn’t look good but I have no idea since I don’t live near those two yards/farms. I wonder though how a farm with 200 roosters and the neighbor with 400 roosters is spreading everything around? Supposedly these birds are dying quickly once infected.

We used to know someone (acquaintance through work, not a friend) that raised and sold fighting roosters and was quite open about it. Whenever someone brought up what a horrible thing he was doing, he'd laugh and say, "I just sell roosters. I don't know or care what they do with them after they're sold."

It could easily be spread by selling infected birds and moving them around. Since it's all under the table anyway, no way to know who is doing what, how many birds are coming and going, or where the birds end up.

I'm not blaming anyone, but having known this one person I could see how it could happen.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Ya seriously you would think in one year $100M would be better spent on a chicken vnd vaccine. Wonder how many vaccines that money could have bought. Versus...not sure what until now people hired off the street to depopulate chickens.
Too bad chickens really are looked at as disposable livestock. This would never happen with pet dogs and cats.
I suppose society, our disposable non sustainable society has some culpability for this view and status.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

I will admit it doesn’t look good but I have no idea since I don’t live near those two yards/farms. I wonder though how a farm with 200 roosters and the neighbor with 400 roosters is spreading everything around? Supposedly these birds are dying quickly once infected. I would be more concerned with all the people who constantly treat their birds with antibiotics. They passed laws banning the use of these antibiotics in chickens without a prescription from a vet. Does anyone here break that law? You don’t have to answer I already know. Imo this just props up weak birds that are more susceptible to all kinds of diseases.

I’ll let you guys get back to your thread. Just know not everyone that owns gamefowl are breaking laws.

Newcastle is viral, so antibiotics would have no effect.

And I know people who just like the breed of animal so much that breed improvement becomes a hobby and/or passion. And for sure there are people who want to acquire these birds because they like the breed and that's it.

It's just that with the ratio there--more than 90 percent "exhibition" chickens--that focus should be on that population.