Yesterday the boys noticed that our wonderful rooster named Hancock had been attacked. He had blood all over his head and he was moping around as if he was sad. I had to confine him from the other chickens to protect him because he looked so bad last night.
This morning he is somewhat better, but he's still not crowing, and when one of our hens bent over in front of him, he didn't even respond. That is very uncharacteristic of him.
This morning we found the culprit on on our front porch, also with some blood on him. He is a wild rooster we've had hanging around the neighborhood for a long, long time. We started noticing him in our yard and near the chicken house about a month ago. Yesterday one of the boys saw him fighting with one of our young roosters.
We tried to catch him before, and one time the boys caught one of his wild hens, but we've had no success and they just don't want to be domesticated. One of our neighbors informed us that he has tried calling animal control, but they were unwilling to do anything. So we decided to take action.
Bang.... It took a few shots, but Lee finally got him. The neighbors are rejoicing! Well, except for one.
Richard, a disreputable neighbor who has been known to use drugs, cuss loudly and camp out on his mother's front lawn, came became angry. He came over and accused Lee of shooting his *valuable* rooster, claiming it was done on his property. Ugh! Then he threatened to do the same to one of our animals if they were found on his property. Double ugh!
Fortunately another neighbor witnessed the shooting, which did occur on OUR property, and Lee has a call in to the Sheriff to discuss the incident. We have two precious German Shepherds, and we want to make sure they are not harmed.
