SYDNEY, March 12 (Reuters) - Roosters running rampant in an Australian city were rounded up on Saturday in a campaign to curb the crowing cocks.
The Tasmanian state capital of Hobart, and its southern fringe in particular, has been plagued by feral fowls for the past five or six years, according to resident and Southern Tasmanian Bantam Club secretary Steven Baldock.
"They're crowing and carrying on," Baldock told Reuters by telephone.
People who keep chickens for their eggs often abandoned roosters, which do not produce eggs, he said.
"We've got people dumping them on the side of the road," Baldock said.
"They're particularly a traffic hazard. It's also an animal welfare issue, because they're suffering predation by dogs and cats and not being fed properly."
An "amnesty" organised by the Bantam Club and the Royal Tasmanian Agricultural Society on Saturday to encourage people to hand in unwanted birds, no questions asked, resulted in more than 150 fowls being brought in, he said.
Some would be re-homed with breeders, while the rest would be euthanised.