Several days ago, at least 6 roosters were dumped in the woods near Head of Millstream. Krista, a kind person who found out about the dumping, went out to see what she could do and caught two of the roosters yesterday.

Today, we went out to help her and quickly came across the pile of dead birds that were also dumped off like garbage.

With a group of 6 people, we were able to catch two more roosters.
Sadly, there are two more roosters (that we know of) who we were unable to catch before we ran out of time.

I'm going to be blunt here - I'm disgusted by the cruel actions of someone who decided to dump these guys in the woods.

Let me be clear:

❗️These birds are domesticated animals (like dogs and cats) and don't stand a chance against wildlife!
❗️There's a MYTH floating around that if you don't want your roosters, dumping them in wooded areas (or letting them be picked off by predators in general) is an honourable thing to do because you're making a "natural" choice by feeding the wildlife. Don't get it twisted, "feeding the wildlife" a domesticated animal who's scared and has no survival skills, is the furthest thing from letting "nature take its course." It's intervening with nature WHILE being incredibly cruel in the process.
❗️The 4 roosters we finished health checks on tonight are being eaten alive by parasites, have numerous wounds, one has an upper respiratory infection, one has an eye injury, all have highly irritated skin, and at least two have had their top beak cut (similar to the practice that is done to turkeys in large scale farming). All have been pulling out their feathers to try to get relief from the parasites.

We've provided them with an aggressive antiparasitic medication, anti-inflammatories, and pain relief medication, cleaned their wounds, and started one on antibiotics.

We've got them settled in for the night in a safe quarantine space where they can finally sleep, start to decompress, eat, and rehydrate.

Life will be better from here on out, guys.

finding sanctuary

written june 28 by co-founder Jamie sabot  (originally posted here)