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 don't know why @PoppieCock 's post was deleted but top marks to her for having the most apt user name on here.

I’d have a few sleepless nights with the guilt, but I’m a bird lover

I don't understand your thinking. Just because some animals of certain species appear happy to interact with humans it doesn't mean that every species, or individual, is.
Please don't ever try to stroke a calf when its mother is around.

Or a crocodile under any circumstances.

If this is true it has really upset me and I wish I hadn't read it. If it's not true, it's a sick joke

Wild? He was livid.

So a poor creature is dead because you were too stupid to leave it alone. Shame on you.

Where in the UK are you OP? I'm on the south coast and it's dark here by 6.30pm and all the chickens are safely tucked up in their coops by then for fear of the fox.

Just wondering where you went on an evening walk where it was sunny enough to light up a cockerel's feathers?

Was there much bullshit on the farm?

Just be thankful he didn't use his spurs to punish you; those things can tear chunks out of human tissue.

My mum was scarred for life after a bantam cockerel clawed the back of her legs when she was a child during the war.

I meant the whole thing. It sounds weird and made up. Why would the rooster come back specially to attack op?!
I hope it’s not true, I hope an innocent animal wouldn’t be killed because it did what is natural to it.

What else could you have done?. It tasted your blood and locked in your scent. It could have followed you home and killed you in the night!

Yes, that was my point

I promise I'm not making this up, it walked a bit away then came back running at me once I'd turned around! My husband saw and tried to warm me but it was too late.

Ok. It was also my point. 👍🏻

Since people are just doubting what happened now, I'll close this thread and keep away from any animals __

Don't bother animals if you don't want them yo bother you back.

You shouldn't have tried to pet it.
But it coming up behind you is not related to you trying to. Cockerels will classically wait til you've turned your back and then 'attack' from the back, as you're bigger than them and if you're facing them they usually feel more intimidated. I put 'attack' in inverted commas because from their point of view all they're doing is protecting their hens.
The cockerel was just displaying natural behaviour and you seem very ill-informed.
You shouldn't have told the staff either, as it was just doing what anyone would/should expect a cockerel to do.
But equally they shouldn't kill a cockerel for doing what this one did. I wonder if they just told you that to placate you. I hope so.

Country folk will tell you, that cockerel was probably on borrowed time as a repeat offender. Did he have his spurs removed? The blokes get to an age and become a ruddy menace.

All of these chicken nugget eating hand wringers, ignore them.

Since the farm was funded by taxpayers, the rooster should have let you pet him (assuming you pay tax). It didn't, so at best it was an example of govt inefficiency. At worst, the tax-funded pecking is evidence of the deep state in action.

You are an American, presumably, so it must have been perfectly natural for you to model yourself on the great Elon Musk, by demanding that the rooster be fired from its tax-funded role with extreme prejudice.

Without thinking, I reached out to try to pet the gorgeous bird.

And that’s what killed this “gorgeous bird”. It wasn’t there for you to pet and it was minding its own business.

I however like to feel safe when out for a walk.

If you want to feel safe, then leave animals alone. It wasn’t interested in you and you should’ve just left it alone.

@Kate8889 , you're a cock killer.

It would never have occurred to me to try to pet a cockerel tbh.

You were really unreasonable to try to “pet” a rooster - what adult does that?

But you weren’t at all unreasonable to report it pecking you and drawing blood, especially if it’s an area where children (young and daft enough to potentially try to touch the rooster..) are also.

I would have thought they’d just keep the rooster in a caged area or something rather than destroying it, but I don’t know how the place is laid out.

You went to pet a rooster and you were surprised it came back to bite you in the arse? I think I’ve heard it all now.