Animal Re-homing

We have an unfortunate tradition in this country that causes hand-raised roosters like Puff Cuddle and Tony Squawk to be rendered unwanted when school Agriculture Day judging ends. Children are encouraged to caringly raise day old chicks for a few months and then proudly present them for judging at Ag Day shows. The schools often order the chicks in from breeders for this purpose.

Every October and November, these once coddled young cockerels are killed by their ‘caregivers’ or illegally dumped in public places and on roadsides while their winning certificates and ribbons hang on children’s walls. They often die of starvation, hypothermia, on the roads or in the jaws of dogs. We and other caring members of the public try to pick up the pieces of this ridiculous annual cruelty.

Puff and Tony are victims of this sad rural custom. Their family was assured that the tiny chicks were female. However, as often happens, when they began to crow, the rural haven they were promised was no longer available to them. To their credit, the parents are desperately seeking responsible solutions. Ten-year-old Lauren is pictured with her pets.

In Lesleyanne's words, “We have recently found out that they are in fact roosters and the only home we can find for them is on somebody’s dinner plate. We don't eat our pets and can't let them go from us to be eaten.

They are ever so friendly - you only have to cluck and pat your leg and they will follow you wherever you go.

They sleep in their coop at night and we would like them to continue having somewhere warm and dry to shelter from the rain.  We would also like them to have plenty of safe space to run around and explore and just someone to talk to them and give them attention. Other than commercial grains and pellets, they enjoy table-scraps and a bit of crumbled bread now and again. We would very much like to find a safe home for them. Can you help us please?”

These gorgeous Barred Plymouth Rock boys were born on 1^st July 2012. They are curious and interactive, enjoy being spoken with and love to wander about exploring their environment. Puff is the biggest and the friendliest and he enjoys being held for a cuddle.

Please apply for their adoption if you can provide a comfortable and attentive home for them together, which is safe from roaming dogs. If you have hens, you will need to describe your breeding management plan. Animal Re-homing will not be part of on-going breeding which, sadly, usually results in the slaughter or abandonment of more roosters. Thank you.

NOTE: If your children are expected to participate in Ag Day shows, please suggest to their principals that they be allowed to grow a portable garden instead of raising an animal. Roosters are not the only once-cherished pets to fall from their pedestals after the show. Completely human-trusting lambs, calves, piglets and others are usually put back into the meat market.

Most people don’t want more than one rooster, yet they continue to hatch out clutches of chicks. The result is often that roosters like Roberto are killed at the tender age of 5 months when they proudly give their first crow, or they are abandoned in a public place to face a myriad of terrifying experiences, often including death.

Roberto was ruthlessly dumped in an Auckland park. This friendly little fellow was never going to survive a life without human intervention – he had become dependent on having his food and shelter provided for him. He was dumped on a Sunday and a dog had attacked his rain-soaked, hungry little body by Wednesday. This has left him debilitated and with a badly injured leg. X-rays indicate a tarsal fracture - and a puncture wound is clearly visible. His vet bill is $350.00.

I am currently giving him medication morning and night, spraying his leg with colloidal silver water and keeping him contained in a small crate in the hope that the fracture will knit. The bruising and swelling have now gone and he is tentatively putting weight on his leg. He is eating so much that I can scarcely keep up with him. It’s great to now see his crop full and a layer of flesh is beginning to cover his once prominent skeleton.

Many thanks to Maggie for rescuing Roberto, to volunteer Bjorn for transporting him to me at short notice and to volunteer Jenni - pictured holding Roberto while his treatments are administered.

If you are able to offer Roberto a home where he will be appreciated and well cared for until he lives out his natural life-span, I look forward to hearing from you. If he will be living with hens, you will need to have a well prepared plan in place to stop more unwanted cockerels being born. Thank you.

NOTE: Animal abandonment, although illegal under the Animal Welfare Act, is very common. The consequences for these hapless chickens range from dog attacks, traffic deaths, torment by children, capture by human predators, starvation, cock fighting (if there is crowding or hens are present), pack raping to death of the hens, poisoning by residents who are irritated by the crowing and routine slaughters by councils. Please do not breed chickens if you are unable to provide loving, life-long care for both genders in the clutch.

Even when they are as gorgeous as these purebred clutch-mates, finding safe homes for roosters is our greatest challenge. Most people want to eat them or use them as breeding machines and then kill or sell their offspring. Neither option is acceptable to Animal Re-homing.

If you are zoned rural and will enjoy Winston the Sussex and Churchill the Wyandotte purely for their beauty, their youthful crows and their fascinating antics, then I would love to hear from you.

These 6-month-old cockerels will need to be kept safe from dogs and if they are living with hens, you must have a plan in place to prevent breeding.

These handsome boys are currently in Auckland. It would be ideal if they were adopted together, but we will consider separating them if necessary. Thank you.

An elderly lady has asked for humane help because her once well-managed hen and rooster population has exploded out of control. Five years ago a huge tree fell across the enclosure fencing allowing her 75 birds to roam freely around her property. Being unable to remove the tree or repair the fencing, Margaret watched helplessly as clutch after beautiful clutch hatched around her home. Matters have been made worse by unscrupulous hobby breeders illegally dumping their ‘imperfect’ roosters across her fence – creating some gorgeous cross breeds.

At one time Margaret put an advert in the local paper offering the Bantam and Bantam crosses “free to good homes.” The poor lady was horrified, because among the genuine applicants were people who she knew were taking her precious chickens straight to their cooking pots. She felt powerless to stop them and suspects some of them continue to poach birds from her property in the cover of darkness. This would explain some of the chickens’ panic around strangers.

The hens, roosters and chicks now number several hundred. An inspector told her she should get the local slaughter-man in to kill the roosters so that the hens could slowly be re-homed over time. This suggestion grieved her terribly and she was delighted when I gave her my recommendation.

To stop the breeding, we have removed 522 eggs so far and intend to re-home 100% of Margaret’s hens. Chicks will be fostered with their mothers until they are old enough for their genders to be determined. As safe havens become available for single or groups of roosters, we will re-home them too. Meanwhile Margaret has agreed to care for an all-boy colony for the length of their natural life-span (up to 13 years). We will provide a roster of volunteer feeders each day through the winter months when it is too slippery for her. 

Many thanks to Shawn at the Matakana Animal Sanctuary for assisting us with this work. And much appreciation to volunteers Katie, Kath, Bill, Adie, Ngaire, Bunty, Susan and Fiona. And to Sylvia at North Shore BIrdwing for fostering and rehabilitating any sick, weak and orphaned chicks for us.

With the exception of being fed twice daily, for generations these birds have been living wild. They have not known many humans and they are excellent flyers who can easily clear 10 foot fences and flit from tree to tree. They are fast, agile and nervous – so applicants must not expect pet chickens from the outset. Initially, the hens will need fully enclosed coops and enclosures (including ceilings) and to be contained for a minimum of 30 days so that retained rooster semen doesn’t allow them to hatch out unexpected clutches. Eggs will need to be vigilantly collected.

The 92 chickens we have re-homed so far have taken more than a fortnight to begin settling, so successful applicants will need to be patient and gentle when dealing with their new family members. Margaret, and only Margaret, is able to stroke some of the birds who choose to live close to her front door.

This is a major rescue project with high overheads. Please donate whatever you can afford to help us with construction work, renovations, trapping materials, petrol costs, phone calls, feed, medicines, etc.

If you are able to offer a safe haven for any of these hens or roosters or to foster hens with clutches or birds of unknown gender, please apply to be part of the solution. Strict adoption criteria applies and photographs of your coop/run set-up will be required. We will also ask how you will keep the chickens safe from roaming dogs and hawks. Many thanks in anticipation of your help and applications.

Young Casper was abandoned in an urban park where he was at risk of dog attacks, traffic, taunting and poaching. He is a magnificent rooster with his pure white plumage, his bright red wattle, comb and eye detail - and his considerable crow.

If you have a pampered flock of hens in need of a boy to keep them happy and to offer them a sense of protection, please apply for his adoption. You will need a stringent egg collecting plan in place to stop breeding as 50% of clutches are male chicks.

Alternatively, Casper could live free-ranging on a rural property with a natural water source where he would sleep in the trees at night and have grain and kitchen scraps thrown to him a few times a week. He would look wonderful pecking around a barn, on a hay bale or fencing post. He would need a home safe from roaming dogs and, if hawks are common, there would need to be tree shelter where he could run to safety.

Casper may be adopted with or without his female housemates Sunshine and Shadow.

We have treated Casper (and his girlfriends) for mites, lice and worms and he is in excellent health.

I very much look forward to your application for this gorgeous looking boy. Thank you.

NOTE: If you witness anyone dumping chickens in public places, please note the time & date and write down their car number plate & description. If possible, also take a photograph of the offender(s) and forward all details to the Auckland SPCA so that a prosecution follows. Please inform others that abandoning an animal is cruel and is illegal under the Animal Welfare Act. Offenders can be fined up to $50,000.00, face a 12 month prison term - or both.

Roosters are among the most mistreated and unwanted animals we assist. They are cruelly and illegally abandoned on roadsides and in public parks, the egg industry annually slaughters billions of them at birth, they are killed by backyard breeders and chicken hobbyists. In suburban or roadside areas they are killed by councils and poachers.

Do you have an area on your property where a group of roosters could be released? There would need to be a natural or manmade water source and, depending on the habitat, feed provided for them at least every second day.

When irresponsible and callous people abandon their roosters in public places, these vulnerable birds face regular authorised slaughters, starvation, public abuse, untended illnesses & injuries, relentless cockfights, poachers killing them for human consumption & eel bait, dog attacks and traffic injuries.

The infrequent dumping of hens in a rooster area results in serious and sometimes lethal injuries from pack-raping.

These are just a fraction of Animal Re-homing’s photographs of rescued chickens – the huge majority of whom are roosters. We have found safe, life-long homes for over 2000 of these colourful creatures during the past seven years, but we are now out of secure havens.

Please join the many North Island families who have offered their rural properties to one or 100 of these colourful boys.

Check with your Council that you are zoned rural and therefore permitted to care for roosters. Please also ensure that your property is safe from roaming dogs and that your nearest neighbours don't mind the sound of crowing. Hawks can also pose a lethal threat to smaller roosters.

Although they would no doubt enjoy the comfort of a coop to retire to, the roosters would be satisfied with sleeping in the trees or a barn at night.

I look forward to your life saving responses with appreciation. Conditions apply.

NOTE: If you witness anyone dumping chickens in public places, please note the time & date and write down their car number plate & description. If possible, also take a photograph of the offender(s) and forward all details to the Auckland SPCA so that a prosecution follows. Please inform others that abandoning an animal is cruel and is illegal under the Animal Welfare Act. Offenders can be fined up to $50,000.00, face a 12 month prison term - or both.