Rescued roosters euthanized due to disease

HENDERSON – The roosters seized in the bust of a Rusk County cockfighting ring had to be euthanized after testing positive for a deadly disease. According to Animal Investigation & Response, which took the birds and tested for diseases, the birds tested positive for a highly contagious disease that has no viable treatment and a near 70% fatality rate. “It is a gruesome death,” AIR said in a Facebook post. According to our news partner KETK, the disease is known as infectious laryngotracheitis, or ILT. It is a herpesvirus infection of poultry characterized by labored breathing, coughing, a rattling sound in the lungs, coughing up blood, eye infection and more. Cause of death in these cases is normally suffocation.

“While devastated by this news, our team continued the high level of care for the birds in their last days and stayed to assure a humane hand over of custody to the state,” AIR said. The Rusk County Sheriff’s Office handed the roosters over to animal organizations to be rehabilitated and adopted. When they tested positive for ILT, those plans changed.