Elvis - Rescued Bantam Rooster!
Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Sky's The Limit Sanctuary
May 2017

Employees of the shelter would go in the big aggressive dog kennels, but too fearful to go in tiny Elvis's kennel! We were told that he had been known to 'charge' at employees that came to clean his kennel.....Soon, he was sleeping in the house! He is the most amazing little guy, we love him SO much! He even goes places with us like, meetings, stores, the grocery store. Because he is so small, he can be carried anywhere and tucked inside my jacket! 

elvis rescued rooster

"We often get emails from the local Humane Society when they've gotten in hens and roosters, and when no one adopts them, we go in and pull them and bring them to sanctuary. Elvis's case is no different. People that have backyard flocks typically aren't allowed to have roosters, so they either release them, kill them, or give them away. We don't know much about Elvis's history, but there's a lot we can surmise. We know he had to be trapped by Tacoma Animal Control, and they took him to the Humane Society. So we believe he was feral and roosting in trees at night and people started complaining about the noise.

Elvis is a tiny 3 pound Bantam rooster, very flighty, and not used to humans at all. Employees of the Humane Society would go in the big aggressive dog kennels, but too fearful to go in tiny Elvis's kennel! We were told that he had been known to 'charge' at employees that came to clean his kennel. When they get in chickens, they send out an email to everyone that's ever adopted a chicken before, because they aren't exactly set up to house chickens. No one came to adopt little Elvis so after nearly two weeks in the shelter, we went in on 1/7/17 and pulled him out. We named him Elvis not even knowing that Elvis Presley's birthday was January 8th!

After a week in quarantine (all intakes are quarantined for a minimum of 30 days for health reasons), Elvis escaped somehow. It was late in the day and he had gotten too high up in the trees to get him down, so he spent a cold winter night up there. His crow was a grand sound the next morning, knowing he was alive! We had to lure him out of the trees with a hen, and then trap him with aviary netting, but he was then safe and sound once again! Not once did Elvis ever charge at us, all we saw from him was fear. He was light and flew to get away from us any time we went in his enclosure. After his attempt to escape, we knew it was important to start spending time with him. Each day when we went outside to let him out of the coop, we would pick him up and bring him inside and hold him for at least an hour. We did this each day for a week and then increased the time. Then we started bringing him inside in the evening as well. We would just hold him, pet him, and talk to him. Then we started letting him down in the house where he would be safe if we couldn't catch him.

Soon, he was sleeping in the house! He is the most amazing little guy, we love him SO much! He even goes places with us like, meetings, Home Depot, the grocery store. Because he is so small, he can be carried anywhere and tucked inside my jacket! Elvis is smart, too - they all are. We started working with Elvis on card recognition, in preparation for an event on March 25th. In probably 90 minutes over the course of 3-4 sessions, Elvis can find the Ace of Hearts within a handful of cards. We continued to practice up until the event and he did it like a champ! But we think Elvis would do anything for pine nuts! =)

Elvis definitely had trust issues, and to some degree, a little PTSD. He still has certain triggers, but we've done well at earning his trust and he will forever be our little house rooster and rooster advocate. There's this stigma around roosters, that they're loud and mean or aggressive, or like to fight. A lot of that is undeserving, and if people would just give them a chance, they would see how loving and loyal roosters can be. Some of the most loving and friendly chickens we've encountered have been roosters. Plus, there are SO many roosters that are abandoned just for being boys. Please consider opening up your home and heart to a rescue rooster, you'll be glad you did!"t

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