Rescue & Adoptions

Past Rescues

Elton

In the summer of 2003, Elton was abandoned in a cardboard box alongside three hens. The one-year-old rooster didn't think too highly of being dumped like yesterday's trash, and gladly hopped out of the box when he arrived at Farm Sanctuary. Here at our California Shelter, we tried to make Elton feel at home right away, offering him a safe, comfortable place to sleep, lots of nourishing food and plenty of space to play and explore. Sadly, most of the roosters born in the United States each year never get the chance to enjoy such simple freedoms. Most never live longer than one or two days.

Considered worthless by both the meat and egg industries, nearly 250 million rooster chicks, just like Elton, are stuffed into plastic bags and left to die in dumpsters behind hatcheries each year. The egg industry doesn't want these chicks, because males are biologically incapable of laying eggs. Neither does the meat industry want them, because unless specifically engineered and bred as "broiler" chickens, they will never grow fast enough or large enough to be sold profitably for their meat. As a result, these sentient beings are regarded as waste material and discarded shortly after birth.

Thankfully, Elton managed to escape this fate. At Farm Sanctuary, far from being considered worthless, he is treated like a king. In fact, we have treated Elton like royalty for so long, that it's finally gone to his head. If anyone ever has a doubt as to who rules the roost here at our California Shelter, he or she needs only to watch Elton contentedly strutting his stuff to find out. As spirited as he is beautiful, Elton loyally patrols and protects our main barnyard. Given free run of the yard, he scampers, perches and crows whenever and wherever he pleases.

Just as every upstanding king should, Elton has dedicated himself to caring for and defending his "people". He likes to keep his group of hens within eyesight, and comes running if he thinks any of his companions are in distress. Each morning, he ventures outside our plush chicken barn to relax in the sun with his ladies, grooming each gently, taking dust baths alongside them, and occasionally throwing back his head, shaking his feathers, and crowing loudly enough to be heard in the neighboring county. As evening settles in on the farm, he perches up on one of our wooden fences and scans the length of the chicken run, making sure that each hen is accounted for and ready to settle in for the night. Only once everyone is safely roosting in the rafters or on their perching beams does Elton get comfortable and close his eyes himself.

Once totally powerless to control the course of his own destiny, Elton has now become the master of his own little universe. Always mindful of how short and tragic his life could have been, we are grateful that he is safe…and honored that Farm Sanctuary has become his own private kingdom.