The Emotional Lives of Fighting Roosters | Episode 57

The Animal Wellness Podcast

Jewel Johnson joins our podcast to talk about the emotional lives of fighting roosters, whom she rescues from seizures at busted cockfights and other surrenders. She does this through her 30-acre sanctuary in Colorado called Danzig's Roost.

Contrary to expectations, the animals are incredibly docile with people and even exhibit bonding behaviors with humans more typically associated with dogs and cats. Johnson talks about the merciless culling of "undesirable" fighters, and how a fully trained rooster—while being gentle with other birds and even hens—loses the ability to be socialized with other roosters.

Johnson also takes listeners inside the culture of cockfights, finding among the people who fight the animals a devotion to God and family that is perniciously at odds with the concomitant belief that a divine grant of dominion over animals gives them the right to sentence the animals to death for the purpose of entertainment.

You don't know fighting roosters or cockfighting until you listen to Johnson's story of love, sacrifice and hope for these misunderstood, exploited animals.

Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rooster.sanctuary

Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost's website: http://www.roostersanctuary.org

You can read about the FIGHT Act and its critical improvements to anti-cockfighting law here: https://bit.ly/3oJKrBx

Read our story about Johnson's work here: https://bit.ly/3ZEyFVR

The Animal Wellness Podcast is produced by Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. It focuses on improving the lives of animals in the United States and abroad through legislation and influencing businesses to create a more humane economy. The show is hosted by veteran journalist and animal-advocate Joseph Grove.

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Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)