A man in Queens is crying fowl after an animal attack on his way to work left him bloodied and concerned for his neighbors' safety — but it wasn't a dog, cat or even a New York City rat that went after him.
His aggressor was a rooster.
"Just usually walking to head to my bus to go to work, and I felt a peck on my left hand," said Leon Suseran. "This thing kept coming, so vicious, almost evil ... blood was gushing, and I was trying to apply pressure to it and it kept charging at me."
Suseran's feathered foe isn't just any ordinary rooster. It has a reputation in the neighborhood.
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"It's a big rooster. It's not one you want to eat, doesn't look like one you'd want to eat," a neighbor said. "The fact that now it's attacking people."
Those who live in the area said that the rooster and a group of chickens have been roaming the area around 169th Street in Jamaica for years, terrorizing people.
"I've heard kids can't ride scooters, you can't walk freely. You've got to be careful now of a rooster," the neighbor said with a laugh.
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It's hard not to chuckle at the idea that people now have to keep an eye out for an attacking rooster on New York City streets. But anyone who lives in the area says it's no joke.
"My neighbor got attacked in June, bit her ankle," said Suseran. Another neighbor said that the clucky crew roams around and has chased kids, and parents avoid the area with their children.
Police helped corral the rooster and a chicken after Suseran's violent run-in Thursday left him bleeding badly from a gash on his hand.
A man who answered the door at the home where neighbors said the rooster and chickens are kept appeared to claim ownership of the birds. But he was quickly prevented from answering more questions by someone else in the home.
Neighbors say they are now more vigilant, watching their back for the marauding rooster.
"They roam the streets, and residents need to be on the lookout," said Suseran, who got a tetanus shot and is on antibiotics.
While hens are legally allowed to be kept in the city, roosters are not. The city's Department of Health wasn't available to respond on Thursday, but Suseran said he filed a complaint with them already.
