Liberated Hens Fly for First TimeWatch and share. For the first time in their short lives, 1,525 hens learn what flying feels like. We want to convey, on some small level, how meaningful these first moments are to these #chickens. In the 56 weeks of their time at an "egg farm", none of these hens touched the earth. They have not flapped their wings. If they wanted to nest in a bed of straw, they could not. If they wanted to experience the sun on their feathers, they could not. If they wanted to dust-bathe or perch at night, they could not. Their experience of the world was one cruel deprivation after another. In these first moments, each hen had a choice. To our surprise*, many chose to lift off, feathers upon the air, wings flapping madly to gain altitude and a higher perch. Some cautiously poked concerned heads out of transport crates and gently lifted overgrown nails attached to wire-floor-stung feet to tread carefully upon novel things like straw. Their rescuers watched in glee, savoring the magicked moments of watching half-lived souls become whole again. The hens terrified to flee transport crates were carefully lifted by a rescuer's hands and placed on solid ground. Soon too, even the most frightened hen would decide her own fate - a nest box maybe, or perhaps a jaunt over to the lowest perch, or maybe simply stopping and taking it all in with her acute eyesight. On the farm where they lived, each one of these hens lacked meaningful choices. They existed. They ate. They drank water. They paced. They cried. Their bodies could not control the expulsion of egg, day after day after intensely boring, hot day of perpetual nothingness. What a terrible injustice humans inflict on these sensitive, social birds. #AnimalPlace constantly promote #veganism. We believe it is a vital way to change our interactions with other animals. Sometimes we feel as if we are in an echo chamber, sometimes shouting, sometimes quietly pleading with people to consider the inherent value a hen, cow, pig, rooster, sheep, any other animal. To consider how dysfunctional our relationship is with others, especially nonhumans exploited for agriculture. We hope you see these hens for who they are - unique beings with an interest in being alive and participating in the day to day joys and sorrows all complex, social creatures experience. If you would like to adopt, donate, or volunteer, visit www.henrescuers.org. * Usually the hens we rescue from #egg farms are "older" (like, two) and suffer from side-effects of over-production and confinement, unable to even physically fly with their damaged bones and bodies. These hens are much younger and stronger.
Posted by Animal Place on Saturday, July 25, 2015
500 little red hens on a midnight caravan to freedom!
Get ready to welcome 500 precious chickens to our shelter and adoption center next week (September 29, 2015), including superstar-to-be Red Rosie!
What do you say to a farmer asking if we will take in hens or they'll be slaughtered? Even when your adoption center is almost at capacity? Yes, obviously!
Okay, so there are still 1,300 hens, four roosters, four pigeons, and two goats at our Rescue Ranch shelter, but with a little re-arranging (and a little help from friends) we made room for 500 more lives. Each individual as valuable and precious as the next.
The farm is a free-range facility, housing thousands of hens in mobile sheds. While their welfare may be better than 95% of their caged sisters, the end of the line for all hens on commercial farms is death. Animal Place's Rescue Ranch program - the only one of its kind in the nation - saves hens from being killed and finds each and every survivor a permanent, loving home. Rosie will become rescued animal #17,987....nearly 18,000 animals have been saved from death in the past five years.
A special thank you to our Flock Partners Forget Me Not Farms at Sonoma Humane Society and the Napa County Animal Shelter for taking in some of our current hens to free up more room for the new girls!
How You Can Help:
Apply to adopt! We may save the hens from death, but our adopters are the real heroes - they give each hen a life of love and compassion. Even better, the adopters are changed by their experiences with adopted hens. Many reduce their consumption of animal products, stop buying eggs commercially, and start feeding eggs back to the birds as a way to help these hens recover calcium lost from laying too many eggs. We love our adopters!
Volunteer with the hens! It takes a village to help care for nearly 2,000 animals! Sign up today to volunteer in VACAVILLE, CA at our Rescue Ranch shelter!
Go egg-free! Share Rosie's rescue and encourage your family, friends, colleagues, random people on the street that egg-free is cool and kind. Learn why the commercial egg industry (including hatcheries supplying chickens to the backyard chicken movement) are terrible for the birds.
Read about Operation Liberate Libby, saving 1,500 hens in July 2015.
Read about our 1,500 hen rescue from February 2015.