To get this rooster gone?

[Kate8889]

We have a farm near our house that's funded by taxpayers so everyone gets to visit. It's staffed by volunteers. We were walking on the evening and there was a rooster who had these beautiful black feathers that turned colorful when sunlight hit them.

Without thinking, I reached out to try to pet the gorgeous bird. He ran away and I thought no more of it. A couple minutes later he snuck up behind me and pecked at my leg enough to draw blood.

I told the people managing the farm and he was gone the next day, butchered.

My husband says I was being unreasonable, that the rooster was just defending his personal space and safety. I however like to feel safe when out for a walk. Was I unreasonable to report this rooster?

I’m getting that thinking isn’t your forte OP.

A lot (most?) of them are fierce as their whole reason for existance is to shag hens and protect hens by attacking any possible threat. That's about it. You were really daft to try to stroke it. An open farm is still a farm, with animals that are not pets or particularly tame. Most farm animals can be dangerous. If you aren't used to livestock I can understand your thinking he's tame, but in future I'd advise keeping your hands to yourself unless you are specifically told one of the animals is there for petting.

So yeah, you got it chopped by complaining. But it happens a lot if they turn randomly aggressive. And in the overall scheme of things with millions of chickens gone each year, I'm sure he had a longer and better life than most.

How are you so sure? Cockerels are under a year old. Roosters are older.

In the UK an adult male bird is called a cock. Writing rooster when you mean cock is like saying powder room when you mean toilet.

Nope, cockeral is English, rooster is American because they became too coy to have a word with cock in it.

He's not domesticated though either is he you numpty. I think you should be put down.

FFS if this is true then you’re not only BU but also an idiot.
Why on earth would you try to touch it?!
It’s paid with its life because you can’t leave it alone. Animals are sentient beings not toys. You deserved that peck for interfering with it and scaring it.

You think farm workers (oops, volunteers) would destroy a bird so flippantly?

I would hope not but OP said they killed it?

Exactly. Then report it for behaving like... a rooster.
Why on earth did you think it would be happy to be stroked?

I will refer you back to the start of your last comment ‘if this is true’

Ok they do an uncle had a right bastard of a bantam

But surely you know not to try to touch farm animals. And about cock fighting?

Of course you weren't. That's the whole point of being sneaky!

I thought that like aggressive dogs, aggressive roosters (at least to the point of sneaking up from behind)!were specially raised/trained

Apply some critical thinking maybe?

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The goats, the donkey and the sheep are more than happy to interact with people and actually come over to say hello

Pet a Rooster ? They are not things to ‘pet’. And one that doesn’t know you.

I think the farm were unreasonable to butcher the beautiful bird as well. He was behaving the way a Rooster would do. I am shocked they decided to kill it.

The hens will not like it either. The Rooster looks after them.

No they are bred to promote an aggressive nature but they are often hatched that way.

Hens can also be aggressive in sorting out the pecking order and can draw blood. We had one rescue battery hen who had had her beak clipped but was still very very aggressive to the extent we had to separate her from the other girls. Sadly Madge died only a couple of weeks of being free and seeing the sun and rain and scratching real soil and being able to move more than just a few inches.

Cock and Bull story

A hen stressed by humans touching it would be more likely to freeze (and then the person stressing it would say 'oh, what a lovely, friendly chicken'), but cockerels under extreme stress are more likely to react aggressively afterwards, including attacking from behind, as it's their survival instincts and biological/evolutionary programming to do so.

Coming across as a massive predator towards any chicken isn't good, but when you've scared the absolute crap out of a male, the normal consequence is that you find out what a small, angry dinosaur they are underneath the glossy feathers shining in the sunlight.

He acted like that solely because of what you did. He was hugely stressed by you and you triggered his instincts, only to complain about him doing what he is supposed to do.

So yeah, you got him killed.

I would advise you to be wary of a thing called a Ram though. The ones with horns. If you see one of those I would not try to pet it.

You were entirely safe with the Rooster. Until you decided to try to ‘pet’ him. As if he will understand that. A Rooster is in charge of his patch. And his ladies.
You were walking past his area. You would know it is his because he is on it.
He did not know you did not mean some harm. That you were not going to wring his neck or something like that. Or hurt one of his ladies (the hen chickens).

So he went after you being the bold fella he was and gave you a piece of his mind. And pecked you. Hard. He was trying to say ‘ keep off me’.

Before though if you had just walked on by, he would have too. He felt threatened .

Do we know the cockerel is dead?

How do you know the cockerel was destroyed OP?

Did you phone up or go back especially to ask or did they call you to tell you the outcome ?

When did this happen?

This has got to be a joke post.