Chicago Roo Crew

08/17/2025

Please, look in comments to see a news story and find opportunities to donate. In Chicago we have opinions and feelings in the rescue community. We are also the city of big shoulders and those shoulders all lifted together last week. When Clyde the sheep busted through a window at a slaughterhouse and liberated himself there were many feelings. We were gratified to learn that many people agree that Clyde deserves to be free from fear, and to get the best sanctuary care possible and available. He has made his safe landing at Wildflowers Farm Sanctuary, a place who has given lifelong compassionate care to many of our bird survivors. This could not have been possible without the assistance of the incredible assistance of Chicago Animal Care and Control who saved him after his escape. It would never have been possible without the assistance of Chicago Chicken Rescue, who temporarily cared for Clyde while we found him placement and worked on transport. It certainly would have not been possible without the lifesaving assistance of Precious Cargo Rescue Rides. Thank you to Angela, Joey, Rubio, Christina, Vincent, Diego, Christy, Sonny, Rebecca, Christine, Mary, Lynn, and Cosmos. Every one here was volunteering to give this very scared boy his shot at the sanctuary life and we are grateful.

On Monday I was contacted by a couple people trying to find a permanent home for a sheep that escaped a downtown Chicago butcher and survived (full story in link). I was honored to say yes. It took a village (or in this case, a major metropolis) to save this guy. stepped up to the challenge and transported this big sheep out to the farm. He’s here now, and he’s safe. He’s a little sore and a lot skittish, but he’s resting and decompressing and healing. Next he’ll get a pedicure, a hair cut, surgically castrated, and well take in another sheep so he won’t be alone (goat friends just aren’t the same). Keep any eye out for future updates on this sweet guy!
HUGE THANK YOU to Chicagoans for cheering him on, for not taking him back to the butcher, Julia from for protecting him and coordinating everyone, Chicago Chicken Rescue for giving him immediate safety, and another extra huge shout out to for loading a bringing him our here. Please follow and like them! CBS covered the Chicago story link in comments.

07/16/2025

Many many thanks to all who helped Switcheroo find his home, including Precious Cargo Rescue Rides who dropped everything in a busy time to get him to safety. Lots of great partners in this work, and they're just awesome! Consider following and giving them a donation! We love transporters! Life saving work!

06/22/2025

Greetings friends. We have a big situation. PLEASE CHECK THE COMMENTS FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP.

As you know we have been closed to intake for some time due to the risks associated with HPAI. But one of the things we feel committed to is assisting shelters.

We have a large situation we have been trying to assist with. We want to thank the rescue partners and supporters who have helped us with this. We will include links in the comments for opportunities to support those indispensable folks. We attach a picture of how we are transporting baby birds, thoughtfully with A/C and watermelon provided in this dangerous heat. It’s hard but a lot of people are bringing birds to safety carefully, even with these dangerous temperatures. We owe special thanks to Precious Cargo Rescue Rides

If you can adopt juvenile roos or adult roos, please let us know. Those who have discussions pending with us, please shoot us additional direct messages. Those who are partway through our screening process, please check your messages. We are juggling a lot. Be patient, but we’re going to get to you.

Much gratitude to all

06/15/2025

A huge thank you and roo roo roo goes out today to Jenny Schlueter who adopted two of our three remaining hens in foster today.

Jenny has been a long term advocate (our friendaversary with her is now six years!) And she adopted and fostered ex fighters and others from us multiple times. Today she took in Moon and Sunflower, game hens who were found as strays in a tough situation. They join rooster Luis, who came from the second cockfighting bust we worked on in Chicago. Luis is delighted to have new friends, and Jenny is responsibly integrating them. We realized today that Luis is probably around 7 to 8 years old. He is so beautiful, doing so well, and is such a gentle kind being. He follows Jenny everywhere and is such a great friend to his hen companions. We look forward to seeing his roo love stories develop even more, as they have over the past five years. Thank you Jenny! Thank you to Christine, for fostering these birds for so many months!

As a heads up we will need help and good placements soon. If you can take survivors of cruelty let us know by messaging us! If you can help with transport or temp foster, message us!

We could also really use some donations now. We owe our absolutely incredible vets at Niles Animal Hospital and Bird Medical Center so much well deserved money on their end. Every dollar going to the Roo Crew goes right to that vet bill! We will include the link in the comments!

Love to all today!

03/29/2025

Our lovely friend Diane Mejia who is the genius behind Mindful Baking got a lovely feature on her work. Diane has uplifted the Roo Crew so many times...having us table her wonderful events, donating to our veterinary bills, and sharing the message of love for roosters. Not to mention her delicious food had nourished us so many times, and she had made special care boxes for our veterinarians. We could not be more happy for her! Consider a visit or an order to Mindful Baking so you too can experience the love!

We especially love how she is highlighting egg alternatives in this feature! Well done Diane!

A pastry chef on a quest to make sweets everyone can enjoy. Mindful Baking Cafe is a gluten-free, vegan bakery constantly evolving to keep up to date with ne...

03/26/2025

As of this moment, we are not doing bird intake due to the the risks of avian influenza, but we are still doing outreach, education, and support and caring for our resident and foster birds. We also believe in uplifting other organizations, especially those who have uplifted us and other organizations!

The Open Sanctuary Project is a really great organization that provides meticulously researched compassionate care information for farmed animals, and even more! Everything they make is free for all to access, including comprehensive courses on chicken care! They're celebrating their 8th anniversary and could use support, so consider a donation here!

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/support-8-years-of-empathy-at-the-open-sanctuary-project

01/29/2025

ALERT!!!! Due to capacity limitations and the risk of HPAI, we have been closed to new bird intake, and will remain closed to intake until the risk abates and we have gotten our vet bills paid down. However, part of our mission is to assist our local shelters with placement whenever possible when it comes to birds or other farmed animals.

Today a shelter contacted us with regard to the seizure of twelve birds who may have come from a cruelty situation. Tomorrow we will assess these birds, but this shelter is very much at capacity and the situation is URGENT.

If you can foster or adopt a rooster under the following conditions, please send us a direct message! If you're not sure, but would like to learn more about this, you can also send us a message!

1. The bird must be quarantined and receive vet care if needed.

2. The bird should be kept indoors or if outdoors, with access to heated space, and with sufficient protection to protect him from the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza and predators.

3. It should go without saying, but we will only adopt to forever no kill homes, where birds are treated as companions.

Please DM us if you can help, and we will get more details as they become available.

12/31/2024

We hope so much that all our supporters and followers are enjoying a good end of year. Today we have a bit of a stressful message to share....tomorrow we will have a happy rescue story for end of year.

In addition to rescuing birds who have no other options, we also try to do educational outreach for those who care for birds compassionately.

We have raised the alarm about Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) multiple times over the years. Our rescuers and network all are cognizant of the risks. At this point, we must halt all bird intake for the protection of the existing birds in our care, and for the protection of our many caregivers and our veterinarians and their staff.

When it comes to advice on HPAI, we refer you to The Open Sanctuary Project, which is an objective organization that created eight separate resources on HPAI. We urge you to consider their main resource on HPAI as well as their biosecurity resource.

HPAI has impacted countless birds, wild-living mammals, and domesticated mammals and now humans. Please refer to the careful research done by OSP to protect your flocks and yourselves. Stay well, our dear friends and supporters, and care for every bird in your care.

A look at the viruses that cause avian influenza, how the disease is spread and manifests, and how to protect farmed bird residents.

12/06/2024

This album contains photos and descriptions of birds who need to find forever homes. Descriptions on the photos will let you know a little bit about each bird, and where each bird currently is. Because of our time constraints as an all volunteer organization, we don't always update this album constantly. So we always also have many other birds who may not yet be featured, but are wonderful, and may fit in with your forever loving home perfectly. If you are looking for a roo friend, contact us. We probably have a great companion for you! Thank you for considering opening your heart and home to a sweet rooster buddy!

12/04/2024

Greetings friends. Today you are likely bombarded by posts asking for help. While we are bad at regular social updates, that is because we are a tiny group of overworked humans, trying to help as best we can, and we prioritize the lives of the animals in our care, and those who most desperately need us over socials

However, in the last few weeks we got four birds to safety, thanks to our lovely community. Today we're going to tell you their stories briefly, share rescue pics, and ask for your help. We need it badly.

Our first bird was a beautiful black rooster who had been wandering a vacant lot for months. With limited space we made a call to community, got an adopter, and this gorgeous roo found a safe landing in days. Thank you Barbara, Christine, and the adopting family.

Then we got a message about a hen who wandered up to a home in an area where hens are illegal. She was contained by a community member, and thanks to Sue, who retrieved her and is providing her with quarantine and care.

Then...a call about two game hens who had been stray in an area full of stray cats and dogs and danger for weeks. Thanks to Christine who patiently and carefully captured them. Thanks to our little friend Annabelle, who has named these birds Sunflower and Moon.

All these birds were facing dire and imminent risk of death from predators, exposure, and even more risks.

We are beyond our limits, and can only continue to provide lifesaving care with community support. Can you consider a donation today? A link to our GoFundMe is in the comments. Every dollar goes to our vet bills.

Speaking of that, as always, we're grateful to Niles Animal Hospital and Bird Medical Center who sees our birds and who we owe a lot of money to. You can contribute to vet bills and save any transaction fees to us by calling them directly and asking to make a donation.

We thank our entire community for your support, and with continued support we will do our best to make sure that every bird without any other options, has us. We are with them. We will tell you more stories soon, we promise!

11/18/2024

UPDATE: The rooster was rescued by our wonderful organizer Christine, alongside Barbara who alerted us to him and has been caring for and keeping an eye on him. He is in remarkably good shape and has a placement. We want to thank our entire community who helped respond to this situation. For those who offered to adopt, we will reach out to you as we will have more need of homes going forward, and we love your compassion and would love more help with placements! Thank you! It takes a village! And we are so grateful for ours. We will include this update in the comments and also a link to our GoFundMe as we currently owe our vets a huge amount and could use some help there as well. Again, thanks to all! This roo friend is safe thanks to you!.......................................................
Urgent!!! This sweet rooster is currently living in a locked parking lot for several months now where a local has been feeding him daily. We’d love to get him to safety before the cold front comes in, but we have nowhere for him to go. Can you give him a safe home?? Please message us if so. If not please share this so that we can hopefully find him a home. We are willing to transport in the Midwest area. Thank you very much!

11/17/2024

This album contains photos and descriptions of birds who need to find forever homes. Descriptions on the photos will let you know a little bit about each bird, and where each bird currently is. Because of our time constraints as an all volunteer organization, we don't always update this album constantly. So we always also have many other birds who may not yet be featured, but are wonderful, and may fit in with your forever loving home perfectly. If you are looking for a roo friend, contact us. We probably have a great companion for you! Thank you for considering opening your heart and home to a sweet rooster buddy!

Patch was dumped on the streets with a gnarly eye infection! We took him to a vet and got him cleared up. He is now with his foster and seeking a safe home. He's a medium sized rooster and not aggressive. Can you give him a home today?

PENDING ADOPTION