General News
22 February, 2026
For the love of animals
AN EAST RUSSELL couple have added another adoptee to their menagerie of rehomed and rescued animals after a pair of roosters were dumped at the bridge near where Clyde, a well-known large crocodile hangs out.
Ana Gabriela Laverde spotted the abandoned birds and immediately set about trying to rescue them.
“I saw them first time when I was driving back home and I stopped to try to get them but as you can imagine this isn’t an easy task, particularly during the day and being just one person,” Ms Laverde told The Observer.
“I know there were more people who tried to get them too, but unsuccessfully.
“There was a funny video of a guy’s attempt at it.”
After Ms Laverde’s first effort, her partner Jackson Millan then went to have a go.
“He had chicken feed in the car so he tried to bait them, but couldn’t get them,” she recounted.
“So, we went back, the both of us with food, and it worked that time.”
But it was a bittersweet moment. While one of the dumped roosters was successfully caught, the other was not so lucky.
“Unfortunately, it was too late for Russell’s friend. We don’t know what happened, but he was dead. Could be the elements, the heat, a python that was too small to eat him.”
The couple named their new rescue pet after the Russell River that the road-cane train bridge spans.
Their good deed was certainly not without pain. Ms Laverde was stung four times by wasps at the spot and Mr Millan then found out how sharp a rooster’s spur can be.
“The poor guy was very hungry, so we used the feed to keep him distracted and Jackson went and grabbed him,” Ms Laverde said.
“Obviously that scared poor Russell, who thought he needed to fight for his life and that’s when Jackson got a big scratch on his face and neck.
“But a couple of seconds of cuddles was enough to show Russell he was safe and he relaxed and let us take him home.”
He’s not the first rooster the two have rehomed. Along with a cow and a steer, duck, goose, dogs, peacock and pigs, Russell, according to Ms Laverde, will “fit right in” with their “big, happy family”.
But while they’re delighted to be able to adopt another pet to join their growing medley, the couple say they’re also disappointed that people think it’s OK to abandon unwanted animals.
“I don’t know what goes on in people’s heads. It makes me so angry,” Ms Laverde said. “If this could be a plea to those who can’t keep roosters to check with the community if someone else can take them or check local rescue organisations?
“If they are dumped, they will 100% of the times die unless someone manages to grab them.”
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