Residents of Sleepy Hollow Road haven't been sleeping too well ever since a hoard of roosters starting crowing them awake at 4 a.m. The Staten Island Advance reports on the gang—seven hens, at least two roosters and a few chicks—invading the street's flower beds. Thankfully, self-proclaimed "chicken whisperer" Michelle Olsen lives on the block.
Olsen noticed a hen on the block about a year ago, but she disappeared, presumably to lay the nine eggs which hatched into the wild chicken gang. But Olsen is taking care of them, feeding them macaroni and cheese and scrambled eggs from her hands. For anyone thinking of adopting one of their own, Olsen says they don't like Italian bread or sauce on their pasta.
ASPCA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said it is illegal to keep roosters as pets in the city, but the street says the chickens don't belong to anyone. But though Olsen says they're "beautiful," other neighbors want them off the block. The ASPCA responded to an animal abuse complaint in June after a resident began chasing one rooster with a broom, and 17-year-old Robert Gonzalez said, "They crow at 4 o’clock in the morning. No one can sleep. I get so angry. Why can’t somebody take them somewhere?" Well, they could always send in cats. What happens when they're overrun by cats? They've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on cat meat.
