Clearly, Cedric Leonard Livingston is not a morning person.
A neighbor says the 31-year-old Lake Worth man allegedly became enraged by the sound of his neighbor's two roosters, then killed them by hitting them with a hammer and slitting their throats, according to a report by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. But two weeks later, after Ubencelado Maldonado purchased two replacement roosters, he said Livingston entered his backyard in the early morning hours of April 9 and fired five shots, killing both of the birds.
Palm Beach County Jail records show Livingston was charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, discharging a firearm in public, and two counts of animal cruelty. He was released the following evening on $12,000 bond.
Roosters have it long had it rough in South Florida, where they are often spotted roaming free. Two men were arrested in July 2011 when police found 22 animals, including eight roosters, locked inside a van. Goats were wrapped in plastic bags, and one was dead.
At a Brickell intersection the same month, a group of roosters who called a lot home (and became a fixture to residents in the area) were displaced when their abode was leveled into a parking lot. While some were captured and donated to a farmer, others were killed or run over by cars.
Even fiberglass roosters suffer. In September, the iconic Cuban-American Calle Ocho rooster statue went missing. It has yet to be found.
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