Sadly, we must share the news of a beloved friends passing. Cassius the rooster was found in a garbage can in Chicago by the waste management company, barely clinging to life. He was taken to the citys largest and most high-kill shelter. Because of Illinois state law, he needed to be held there for a week to see if any owner would come to claim him. Yeah, right. We pulled him out a day after his stray hold was up and brought him home. When we first saw him, he was one big bloody mess. It was immediately clear that he was the victim of illegal cockfighting, and that he had lost his final match. He had blood and scabs forming over his entire head, cheeks, neck and eyes. We helped to clean away the dried blood covering his beak so that he could breathe. He was missing feathers and had deep puncture wounds over his entire body. He was weak, dehydrated, just skin and bones and didnt even have the strength to stand. We thought we were going to lose him. Miraculously, after weeks of being syringe-fed every meal and daily strong antibiotics and pain medicines, Cassius got stronger. He could walk around the bathroom he was staying in. The scabs still covered his entire face except for his beak, and we couldnt see underneath. When the scabs finally fell off, what we saw broke our hearts into a million pieces. Cassius eyes had been completely pecked out. He was blind. We began the long process of rehabbing Cassius as we do with all ex-cockfighting birds. To date, EARTH has successfully rehabilitated over sixty ex-fighters. Rehab for these birds means re-learning everything they have ever known. Contrary to popular belief, roosters are not mean-spirited by nature. All chickens are gentle, curious and loving creatures until theyre given reason not to be. So, to train a bird to be a fighter, heres what they can go through: The birds are typically kept locked in very small cages, crates or boxes, in basements or dark rooms to keep them quiet. There, they are tortured. Sometimes they will have hot metal rods poked through the bars of their cage, the objective being to teach them that every touch hurts, and to stimulate their fight to survive instinct. They never see sunlight. They live in solitary confinement. They sometimes have their legs sliced into with sharp knives, and razor blades implanted in their legs next to their spurs, so that they will do more damage to their opponent when they fight. This is all done without any numbing or pain medication, of course. These birds are taught that the only way to survive is to kill anything that moves. Then they are turned loose on each other surrounded by cheering yelling humans under blinding bright lights for a fight to the death. The winner will fight again. The loser is thrown away, whether hes dead or not. Hes useless. To completely rewire someones brain and change what they have always known to be true takes a long time. It takes consistency, and daily work to build trust. The task of teaching Cassius to trust again was exponentially more difficult because he couldnt see us. Every time we touched him he bristled and attacked. We were bitten and punctured more times than we could count. We had to wear thick gloves when handling him, and even then he pecked through them to draw blood. Still, we tried. We tried for the entire year he was with us, ever-hoping for that breakthrough moment. Progress was incrementally slow, but eventually we could hold him without the gloves and his bite didnt puncture our skin any more. He would calm down after ten minutes of being held and allow us to pet his head. He never gave us any sign that he was enjoying it, but wed like to think he was. At the very least we hope he knew that he was loved. We dont know how old Cassius was when he came into our care, nor do we know exactly what caused him to pass away overnight in his sleep. Could it have been old age? Maybe. More likely, his body was permanently weakened by his past life and his lifespan was shortened as a result. No matter the cause, were heartbroken he is no longer with us, and we miss him so much already. Run free at Rainbow Bridge, Cassius. Were holding the image of you finally seeing the beautiful colors around you in our hearts today to give us comfort. You are so missed and well always love you.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 18:32:16 +0000
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