CHONGQING, CHINA - FEBRUARY 2: (CHINA OUT) A rooster finds food at a farm February 2, 2007 in Chongqing Municipality, China. Veterinary workers in China are monitoring domestic animals after Indonesia reported that the avian influenza had been detected in a large number of cats. The discovery has heightened concerns about the virus that experts had thought was only infecting chickens, ducks and other fowl, according to state media. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) (2007 China Photos)
A woman in Pennsylvania has been brought up on charges of animal cruelty for killing two beloved community roosters.
At the Pioneer Tunnel coal mine in Ashland, two brother roosters could usually be seen wandering about and heard crowing at sunrise.
"These two roosters would follow you around," Tony Loftus, a Pioneer Tunnel worker who had nothing but fond memories of the roosters, told the Scranton television station WNEP.
According to Loftus, the cock-a-doodle-duo were given to the mine a year ago, after a rooster-hen pair called "Big Red" and Anne-thracite died of natural causes.
"Normally when I come in the morning to fire up the steam locomotive, the roosters would be crowing when the sun comes up. I know I will probably miss that," Loftus said.
A few weeks ago, around 6 a.m., the animals interrupted the sleep of 21-year-old neighbor, Jenna Caso. According to police, she fired at them three times with her shotgun from her backyard for doing what roosters do best.
When asked by a witness why she shot the animals, Caso reportedly said, “They woke me up.”
Samantha Kinkaid, who lives on the other side of the street from Caso, told WNEP that, like many others, she enjoyed having the roosters, whom Ashland police had never received a complaint about, as part of the community.
"They seemed to be like farm animals – they never bothered anybody. I never heard of them attacking anybody. They seemed pretty friendly," Kinkaid said.
Caso has been charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty and reckless endangerment.
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