Benedict lives near a wild bird rescue center where the worst of the roost are relocated by bleary-eyed residents in the dead of night. Often, she bolts up in her bed to the sound of a rogue rooster crowing mistakenly at the moon or a street lamp. It is a plague. The law requires that owners cage their fowl, but the wild ones roam the streets with abandon, enticing sympathetic residents to feed them. Gary Addleman, a code enforcement officer and a resident of Key West for 39 years, said the chickens are descendants of fighting roosters brought to the island by Cuban immigrants.
Residents devise ways to deal with the pesky birds and still stay out of jail.
The Detroit News.