Rooster Guarding a Key West Porch Poster

"Rooster Guarding a Key West, Florida, Porch" by Catherine Sherman. A rooster "guards" a porch on a house in Key West, Florida, in case you're foolish enough to ignore the "No Trespassing" sign. Feral chickens known as gypsy chickens roam freely in Key West. Some descend from chicken farming in the early years of human settlement on the island, while others are descendants of chickens released after cockfighting was outlawed in Key West in the 1970s. These cockfighting chickens are a variety of Filipino fowl that was imported from Spain in the mid-1800s to Cuba and which came with Cubans when they moved to Key West. Some of the Cubans came to work in the cigar industry. This chicken breed is called "Cubalaya." The Cubalaya roosters' size and aggressiveness made them perfect for cockfighting. Key West is the southernmost part of the continental United States and is the end island on the Florida Keys archipelago.