YAKIMA, Wash.- The rescued roosters and hens from the La Nuestra cockfighting bust are still looking for homes. Around half of what originally was recovered are recuperating in Roy at Heartwood Haven.
“We were able to rescue over 50 birds,” says Heartwood Haven’s Executive Director Kate Tsyrklevich.
The birds already being rehomed have found their place across the country, as far as North Carolina.
The animal sanctuary is testing every bird to ensure they are healthy enough to become a pet. Bloodwork and disease testing is starting to catch up to Heartwood Haven’s wallet.
“We have expenses we have to cover between travel to veterinarian expenses,” says Tsyrklevich. “We are looking for the community’s help in either adopting a rooster or donating to make sure these roosters, as well as any future animals that we take in from cruelty cases, are taken care of.”
While supporting everything from roosters to pigs to ducks, the non-profit is looking for monetary and physical donations.
But to give the animals a healthy and happy live, adopters are needed.
While the roosters come with a cockfighting background, Tsyrklevich says they make great pets.
“The roosters who have been trained for cockfighting specifically, they’re actually the most mellow birds,” says Tsyrklevich. “They let me walk up to them, I pick them up, they’re not scared of people.”
When looking for their home, the sanctuary says they fit in with other animals, birds and even children. The key point is that they are the only rooster, or their aggressive nature could show.
“The thing is they don’t fight humans,” says Tsyrklevich. “It’s the roosters who haven’t been used for cockfighting yet because they’re too young to have been trained. They’re the ones who are wily and nervous and scared.”
For anyone interested in adopting a rooster, Heartwood Haven says it will drive and deliver the birds to nearby states or can arrange for them to be flown to their destination.
The sanctuary says this coup from the lower Yakima Valley is one of the larger rescues it’s seen. Particularly because, most rescues don’t want to deal with the birds.
“The alternative to this is the birds are destroyed,” says Tsyrklevich. “Nobody wants to see healthy animals be killed.”
