Roosters still cooped up in tiny Washington town after landslides

A small community near Fall City, Washington, remains cooped up after heavy rains and landslides severely damaged the single road accessing their homes.

Among them are 85 birds -- mostly roosters -- who have taken sanctuary at Rooster Haus Rescue and who are weathering the disruption along with about 70 people in the area.

“There is such a huge overpopulation with roosters right now ...” said Jenny Rae Mathison, noting the backyard chicken coop trend. “Most people can’t legally have them, they don’t want them. They are kind of a byproduct in the backyard chicken world."

Mathison is founder and operator of Rooster Haus Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary. It is located amid the small community that has been cut off from the outside world.

“We’ve had to reschedule quite a few vet visits already … we do have enough supplies," she said. "When we first found out about this we went berserk prepping."

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A couple weeks ago, heavy rains caused flooding and landslides throughout Western Washington. This small community remains trapped after a landslide stretched and cracked the single road accessing the area.

Mathison says the ground is still shifting, causing cracks in the pavement to widen. The road is open once a day for a brief moment. Residents can attempt to travel then. Other than that, the only way for people to get in and out of the neighborhood is by foot or ATV.

“Right now, I think they are doing some soil sampling," Mathison said. "They have a big pile driver truck in the middle of the road so they can sample. They aren’t allowing anyone to cross. They are allowing very limited foot traffic every once in a while, but right now it’s kind of shut down. So we are stuck here for the majority of the day this week."

Mathison and others at the non-profit animal sanctuary scrambled when the landslides and power outages initially hit a couple weeks ago. They stocked up on supplies. They also have a generator to keep things running for up to a month. Power outages remain a concern.

But Mathison says that she hasn't heard much from county officials about when the road will be fixed, or if it will ever be safe to use it again. She notes that rumors are spreading among neighbors that there is no money available to fix the road in a timely fashion. Others say that their community of 70 people doesn't prompt as much concern as other roads used by far more people. There's a lot of time to chat when there's no other place to go.

The rush to stock up on supplies has hit the sanctuary hard. They are holding an online fundraiser to help with the financial shock.

“We’ve really had to scramble and come up with a lot of money that we didn’t have to purchase supplies for the next month or so," Mathison said. "We have a lot of vet visits coming up that are estimated to be about $5,500, so we were already hurting and this set us back quite a bit.”

Rooster Haus Rescue

Most of the animals they rescue are from Washington. Aside from roosters, they also house ducks and the occasional peacock.

Mathison says that roosters are often abandoned in Washington. With the trend of backyard chicken coops, she estimates that there are some people who give up after it loses appeal. Other roosters are rescued from illegal cock fighting operations.

“Some people, maybe they are not so nice or they have no idea that (roosters) can’t survive in the wild because they are domestic animal," Mathison said.

"They do rely on humans, they can’t survive," she said. "They have had their flight bred out of them through selective breeding. So they can’t get away from predators. It’s a death sentence for them being dumped. It’s also illegal. But it happens all the time. We get calls when people see roosters at trail heads or parks. Without being rescued, they would absolutely die.”