When Good Chickens Come Home To Roost

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 15, 2005 | Amir Efrati

[La Enchiladita]

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. -- Felipe, an orange-feathered rooster from Pennsylvania, faced near-certain death when police busted his cockfighting match on a rural compound in 2001. Instead, he checked into the Eastern Shore Chicken Sanctuary.

After three weeks of psychological treatment, the 1½-foot-tall fowl kicked his drug habit and stopped picking fights. Today, he lives peacefully with 200 other feathered residents at the center, often cozying up to a flock of Florida hens.

Felipe was lucky. Most of the millions of roosters bred for cockfighting in the U.S. face a gruesome end. If they're not slaughtered during combat, they are often euthanized after police break up illegal tournaments.

Cockfights are legal only in Louisiana and New Mexico, but illegal combats and betting are common throughout the country, where there are an estimated 100,000 gamecock breeders. The fights, which take place in an enclosed area, end when one of the duelers dies or one of the handlers concedes victory. They can last more than 30 minutes and can generate tens of thousands of dollars in winnings.

....

Fight survivors are generally considered too violent to be saved, and some states have laws requiring that they be killed. In California 5,000 roosters have been eliminated over the past five years, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Most farmed-animal sanctuaries accept hens, but few take in roosters. And even animal-rights groups generally say it's not worth their time to rehabilitate fighting roosters. . .

"It would take a staff years to rehabilitate these birds," says Martin Mersereau, a manager at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal-rights group.

Not so, says Pattrice Jones, co-director of the Eastern Shore Chicken Sanctuary, an unusual rehab center for chickens that also accepts gamecocks.

[La Enchiladita]

Ms. Jones, who holds a master's in clinical psychology, says rehabilitation of the former fighters consists of detoxification and behavioral modification, which includes punishing bad behavior. The retired combatants also undergo "systematic desensitization," or gradual exposure to what they've been trained to fear. In this case: other roosters.

[wrathof59]

Since when is a chicken (as your title states) a cock?

[La Enchiladita]

Something happened to the title, I'll see if I can get it "fixed."

[avg_freeper]

Probably too muscly to taste good.

I've always wondered if they could do the same thing for chickens as they do for cows in Kobe Japan.

I'd totally massage a rooster to get some good marbleized fried chicken. I'd start my own ranch:

AVG's Well Messaged Chickens

[Khurkris]

Felipe has, at last, found happiness...