Chicken won’t balk

Tucked behind the Glendale Community College’s electronic billboard, an unlikely tenant has managed to roost and elude animal control officers for a week now.

The fast-moving black chicken has dodged animal control officers by attempting risky flight maneuvers into traffic at Verdugo Road and Mountain Street, officials said. All the while, it’s set up shop on the corner, feeding off insects in the nearby bushes, or scraps from passersby.

“We simply cannot catch the chicken,” said Ricky Whitman, spokeswoman for the Pasadena Humane Society, which provides animal control services in Glendale. “The chicken will go into traffic and make it unsafe for our people.”

It’s a maneuver the chicken has apparently attempted several times.

Michel Chahayed, an attendant at the Mobil gas station across the intersection, said he has seen the chicken walk into traffic lanes, causing a ruckus as motorists swerve to avoid the bird.

“It’s a nice chicken, but maybe one day it will cause an accident,” he said.

From approaching college students to wandering up and down the Mountain Street hill, the chicken has had no problem exploring the neighborhood, but it appears to have taken a liking to the Verdugo Road and Mountain Street corner, which Chahayed said it rarely ventures far from.

College student Elias Rivera had never seen the chicken before catching a glimpse of it on the way to class Thursday morning.

“It’s kind of weird because it’s the home of the Vaqueros, and there is a chicken over there,” Chahayed said.

Several months ago, the bird was accompanied by a white chicken, which hasn’t been seen recently, he said.

The animal control shelter has received numerous concerned calls about the chicken, which is believed to be female, Whitman said.

Two empty bowls littered the hillside behind the electronic sign, Thursday, an indication that it has become somewhat of an adopted addition.

“It’s very content and happy,” Whitman said. “It’s well fed, so there is no reason for it to leave.”

Still, animal control officers say that without the extra food help, the chicken would become weak enough to catch. Tranquilizers are out of the question because the chicken is too small and fast, Whitman said.

Animal control officers are eager to catch the chicken, so they can move it out of harm’s way, she added.