Animal Welfare United States Project #35495

The Rooster Project

by VINE

Project Report | Sep 23, 2021
Report from the Road

By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary

Greetings, and thank you again for your support of The Rooster Project.

Last month, I embarked on the first lap of The Rooster Road Trip, during which I will be visiting sanctuaries of all sizes all over the country to help them figure out whether and how they can offer refuge to more roosters. Along the way, I'll be sharing expertise from our more than two decades of experience maintaining flourishing flocks with multiple roosters.

This was just the first, fairly short, trip of what will be several jaunts, but I learned a lot along the way. Being able to see the sites with my own eyes and talk with sanctuary staff not only enabled me to give them advice but helped me to understand why it is that so many sanctuaries have struggled to include more than one rooster per flock, even though the norm for feral chickens and wild junglefowl (from whom all chickens descend and are nearly indistinguishable) is several roosters per flock.

As it happens, making the changes that will enable sanctuaries to add more roosters will also enhance the wellbeing of hens. I'm excited to get to work on enhancing chicken care at sanctuaries in that way.

One of the happiest moments of the trip, for me, was when I was able to see how one sanctuary had already made changes based on the online two-part Rooster Workshop we offered earlier this year. That sanctuary is well on its way to significantly increasing the number of roosters in residence.

Another sanctuary made changes immediately after my visit. Here is what they had to say:

"Pattrice gave us such great insight and tactics for helping our various roosters. We instantly made improvements to their living situation(s) and are seeing daily progress. The fact that VINE is providing this invaluable resource, at NO cost to the benefiting sanctuaries, is truly remarkable."

We are able to offer this service to other sanctuaries only because of donations to The Rooster Project.

In other rooster news, our new website includes a form specifically for rooster inquiries and will soon include rooster-related resources for other sanctuaries. And, of course, we continue to welcome new roosters to VINE, including a semi-feral trio, one of whom is pictured in the attached photo.

Thank you again for your support. Because we still have so much to do, please do renew that support as you are able, knowing that it will make a real difference for birds at VINE Sanctuary and elsewhere.

Sincerely,

pattrice

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May 28, 2021
Rooster Palooza

By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary

Greetings and thank you again for supporting The Rooster Project at VINE Sanctuary!

As always, it's Rooster Palooza over here at the sanctuary, with nearly ninety roosters in residence and more on the way! Every morning, the day begins at dawn with a cacophony of crowing and the ruckus continues all day long.

Among the new arrivals, my favorite is a large red rooster who I call Rufous. He had been the sole suvivor of a backyard flock, ranging freely in the company of a cow, when the the person who considered him property got tired of him and decided to kill him. Luckily, a neighbor intervened and brought him to the sanctuary.

Rufous had no idea that the person who had been caring for him intended to kill him, but it still must a have been a shock to be scooped up, placed in a crate, and driven to a brand-new place filled with hens and many other roosters. He was understandably freaked out and ready to defend himself if necessary, but after a few days of observing everything from within the safety of a kennel, he was ready to join a flock and proved to have absolutely no interest in starting or participatng in conflict.

Rufous did have strong preferences, though. I had placed him with one flock, but he kept hanging around the gate to another. One night at closing time, I noticed that he was still hanging around that gate rather than taking himself to sleep in his own coop. I was a little worried about whether the roosters in that flock would welcome him, but I opened the gate and he just casually walked past another rooster and into the coop, hopping up onto a perch as if that had always been his home.

We've got a summer intern starting next week -- just in time for rooster rehabilitation. A group of roosters rescued from cockfighting will be arriving the week after. Our method of rehabilitating roosters used in cockfighting is not difficult to learn but is extremely time-consuming. We'll be happy to have someone who can devote hours each day just to that process.

Our efforts to help other sanctuaries welcome more roosters continue. In March and April, I gave a two-part online Rooster Workshop for staff and volunteers at dozens of other sanctuaries. Part one covered the basics of our methods, and part two covered problem-solving. I also provided in-depth consultations to two sanctuaries.

Later this year, I'll be going on my Rooster Road Trip, visiting other sanctuaries so that I can help them brainstorm while actually meeting their existing flocks and seeing the possibilities of their physical set-ups. I'll have more news about that in the next report.

In the meantime, thanks again for supporting The Rooster Project, and don't forget to seize every opportunity to contradict the stereotypes about roosters that are responsible for their endangerment.

Sincerely,

pattrice

PS All next month, we will be running the Pride Month Vegan Challenge, encouraging people to "Eat the Rainbow" through the month of June. This is a great opportunity to help roosters by challenging someone you know to go vegan for animals, the environment, or their own health. Learn more at rainbowvegan.org

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Jan 28, 2021
Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!

By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary

Happy New Year!

Hello, Happy New Year, and thank you again for your support of The Rooster Project!

Let me tell you about some of the roosters who have joined our community since our last report:

Most recently, one of our local supporters, who often brings a disabled youth in her care to volunteer at the sanctuary, happened upon a rooster standing on a rural road on a morning when the wind chill was -5F. After ascertaining that he was not a companion of any of the people living on the road, she called us.

Even though there were already 86 roosters in residence, with more on the way, of course we said to bring him here and we would find a way to integrate him into one of the flocks. In addition to shivering from the cold, he was extremely skinny, so we suspect that someone dumped him in the woods (a common fate for unwanted roosters).

He's very friendly, and so we have high hopes of an easy integration, after he has spent some time in the infirmary regaining lost weight and recovering from his brush with hypothermia. Rachel calls him "Speedy" because he is super-fast.

The red rooster we are calling Vinny also was found on a rural road. He had what seemed to be a broken leg, so his rescuer brought him to the local wildlife rehabilitation center, which is called VINS (we often get each other's phone calls due to the similarity of our acronyms). They gave him pain meds and arranged for one of their staff members to bring him to us. We were very happy with them for that, and so his name reflects their role in his rescue.

Vinny is super sweet and is already a staff favorite. He did have a fracture, which is now splinted, and he will stay in the infirmary until it heals. Everyone likes chattng with him while working in that area: If you talk to him, he always replies!

We're now awaiting four young roosters who had been companions of an elder woman fleeing domestic violence. Integrating new roosters into our flocks is always most difficult in winter, because the ice and snow sharply decreases the amount of room roosters have to range and space is the best peace-keeper, but of course we said yes in that situation. So often, women feel trapped in domestic violence relationships because they do not dare leave animals behind with the abuser but are unable to bring them to shelters or other supported housing.

I hope you've enjoyed "meeting" some of the newest roosters to join our community. If you missed our overall annual Activity Report for 2020, I've attached that here. We feel proud of what we managed to do in the midst of the pandemic and other crises, and we know that we could not possibly have done any of it without the help of supporters like you.

So, thank you again!

Sincerely,

pattrice

PS -- Follow us on social media to "meet" more roosters! And, if you haven't yet done so, tune into one of our virtual tours to see the sanctuary!

Speedy, upon arrival

Virtual Tour Info

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Attachments:

2020 Year in Review (PDF)

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