Free to a good home: one rooster, "mean as the devil," who will attack you, your children and everything you know and love.
Oh, and his name is Steven. And he's great with the lady chickens.
A Milton woman drew laughs across the internet last month for her straight-to-the-point Craigslist ad trying to re-home Steven, a pet rooster she said was terrorizing her family.
"Asshole rooster (Milton)," read the post. "Free rooster. Mean as the devil. If someone doesn't come get him, he's going to meet his maker. He's great with the hens. Just hates us. He will attack you...your kids...your dog...the rake and the broom. We hate him. His name is Steven."
Jennifer Barrow, who lives in Milton with her family and keeps chickens as a hobby, was the author of the post, and a screenshot of the ad made its way around Twitter. Barrow said she adopted Steven only a week prior to making the post from another man who was trying to get rid of the rambunctious rooster.
"The guy told me he was giving him away for free because he was chasing kids around the yard. I thought, 'OK, we can deal with that,'" she said. "Well, we get him home and everything seems to be going OK, there was no trouble for the first couple of days. And then, all of a sudden, he starts attacking us."
Barrow said Steven punctured her husband's leg with his spur, a pointed growth on the inside of a rooster's leg that serves as a defense mechanism against other roosters and natural competitors. Barrow's husband warned her they needed to get rid of the rooster, or else.
"So I was like, alright, I'm sure we can get rid of him, so I posted about him," Barrow said of making the Craigslist ad. "And I was honest about what he was, because I felt like the guy I got him from wasn't very honest with us."
Surprisingly, it took less than a day for Steven to find a new home. John Sablan, who lives in east Milton, saw the ad and thought Steven would be the perfect addition for his family.
"I was looking for a mean rooster," Sablan said. "We have a little dog that digs into our chicken pen, and so I was online looking for a rooster and up came this title that said 'mean ass rooster,' and I thought, that's just what I'm looking for."
Steven the "devil" rooster is admired for his good looks. His current owner, John Sablan, says he hopes to breed him with some of his hens. (Photo: Courtesy of Jennifer Barrow)
So Steven joined Sablan, his chickens, two other roosters, pigs, ducks and turkeys on their three-quarters of an acre property. He said Steven has settled well in his new home and was "put in his place" by a tom turkey that roams the land.
"He's living peacefully in the midst of the crowd now," he said. "He's just kind of like, 'Well, I'm not the talk of the walk anymore.'"
Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com and 850-435-8632.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the Pensacola News Journal and republished through our USA TODAY partnership. You can see the original version of this story here.
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