Today I say goodbye to my beautiful Sumatra Rooster named Rufus. I post this with tears - it's just the soft heart of a chicken farmer who loves animals of all kinds and thinks that we should treat them humanely. I tried and tried to make Rufus stop being a threat to me and to other people but he insisted on doing his job of protecting his hens and I was constantly trying to protect myself from his attacks. We could not continue to have this threat since we have people who like to come look at our flock and children especially delight in seeing our happy crew. I would feel terrible should something happen and someone get hurt. About a year ago, I came home to find that Rufus had been attacked by another rooster. I took Rufus in the house. He was bloody and beat up pretty bad. I doctored his wounds and kept his comb moist with coconut oil so that it would not dry out because it was very bruised. He refused to eat so I force fed him yogurt round the clock. I wasn't sure that his eye could be saved. But he did recover and had no ill effects as you see how beautiful he is in this picture. He was my prized beautiful rooster that I loved. So what is more humane - leaving a rooster enclosed separated from the flock for the rest of his life, isolated so that you don't have to interact with him for fear of attack, or putting him down as quickly as possible? I gave Rufus a good life - better than most roosters ever get. I'll miss him very much. Tearfully submitted.
