As cockfighting rings continue to be busted all over the U.S. and throughout the world, rehabilitation centers have cropped up to help the abused birds regain their lives. Two of these centers are The Wild Bird Fund and The VINE Sanctuary.
The Wild Bird Fund is a bird center in New York City that takes care of roosters rescued from cockfighting rings, including one busted in Brooklyn last December, reported CBS.
"At first [the roosters] were aggressive with their human handlers, flying out of the cage in attack mode, but they have settled in rather well now. We have volunteers hold them every day to calm them and get them used to people," Rita McMahon, director of the center, told CBS.
The roosters are often isolated and then treated in a way that teaches them that they must kill or be killed. The birds must be tested for salmonella at the Wild Bird Center before they can be sent across state lines to the next step of their rehabilitation.
The next stop for the roosters is VINE Sanctuary in Springfield, Vt., where trained rehabilitators change the lives of roosters that were cruelly trained to fight, and likely injured in the process. The birds are aggressive and defensive, completely unsociable and dangerous to other birds. With love and slow exposure to a normal bird life, the roosters are able to eventually live happy, normal lives, explains the Sanctuary on its website.
Pattrice Jones opened the VINE Sanctuary in 2002, using her psychology degree and knowledge about roosters to rehabilitate creatures that are almost always euthanized. Until the advent of shelters like hers, rescued cockfighting roosters were thought to be unsaveable, so they'd be killed. Jones has worked hard to change this.
"The basic idea of our rehab process is a combination of treatments for PTSD with some behavioral therapy and social learning," said Jones to CBS.
Though the VINE Sanctuary has a 100 percent success rate with the birds it treats, it has limited resources and feels that it can't make a dent in the number of abused roosters.
"[Cockfighting] busts turn up hundreds of birds, more birds than any sanctuary can take in. Just making it illegal hasn't worked. Additional interventions are necessary," Jones told CBS.
Watch the video below, uploaded by National Geographic, as the workers at the Wild Bird Fund explain what they do at the center:
Both centers are non-profits, so you can donate on their websites to keep them doing such great work!
