‘Ban chickens in schools to save cockerels’ lives’

Activists say hatching eggs for educational purposes is responsible for surge in male birds being dumped

SCHOOLS should be banned from hatching chicks because so many are abandoning roosters, campaigners have said.

The founder of Britain’s only cockerel rescue service has said that she has been “inundated” with unwanted male birds, and that schools are to blame for the sharp spike in numbers.

Helen Cooper, 44, from Swindon, Wilts, has now started a petition calling for hatching programmes to be banned in schools.

“Last year and this year I have noticed a huge increase in people contacting us about unwanted cockerels from school hatching programmes,” Ms Cooper told The Daily Telegraph.

“They seem to be getting more and more popular.

“Companies come in to supply eggs and an incubator. They wait for the eggs to hatch so the children can see chicks being born. And that is where the problems start.

“They are left with something alive which they have no intention of keeping – it is bloody expensive and hard work to keep cockerels.

“They make a lot of noise, and they all have to be housed separately or they will fight.”

She said that schools often like to keep hens as they lay eggs, but cockerels are “surplus to requirements”.

Ms Cooper, whose cockerel rescue service is based in Swindon, said she has already accepted more roosters this year than she did for the whole of 2016, with requests pouring in from up and down the country.

“Nine times out of 10 a concerned parent [contacts me] saying there is nothing in place for the chicks, they will be sent back to the egg company and destroyed,” she said.

“To me the whole thing is a cute novelty dressed up as education.

“There are plenty of places you could take children to watch eggs hatch, like a city farm. Or you could even live stream hatching eggs on a computer screen.”

Ms Cooper set up the Big Red Rooster Cockerel Rescue in November 2014 after learning that no such service existed elsewhere in the country.

She said she is at full capacity with 130 cockerels which she keeps on an acre of woodland that a local farmer allows her to use.

“I’ve had to turn away about 30 or 40 over the past couple of months. I’ve been saying ‘No’ for a while and it breaks my heart,” she said.

Earlier this year she set up a petition calling for a change in the law, which attracted over 700 signatures, but it has closed due to the General Election.

An RSPCA spokesman said that while it is “wonderful” that children take an interest in animals, it is “difficult to look after any animal’s needs in a classroom environment”.

The spokesman added: “Schools can be noisy and frightening places for some animals and so we would discourage educational establishments from attempting to keep and look after animals themselves.

“We believe that children and young people can be taught about animals without keeping pets in the classroom.”

The RSPCA advises schools to use soft toys, props, books or videos.

Pity the poor roosters. Schools like to show pupils the miracle of life hatching from eggs, but when the chicks turn out to be male, they don’t want to know. Campaigners say that cockerels are being abandoned because they are hard to deal with and are not going to lay any more eggs. School hatching programmes are apparently growing rapidly, according to Helen Cooper, founder of Britain’s only cockerel rescue service. She has been “inundated” with unwanted male chickens and has now started a petition calling for a ban on hatching in schools. Once upon a time a classroom might have had a hamster or a rabbit to care for. But teachers are drawing the line at roosters, which make a racket and fight each other. Why can’t they train them to crow at the end of lessons and do without the school bell?