Chicken Rescue from Mississippi
Yesterday, 100 "peepers" (aka broiler chickens) arrived at SFO (San Francisco International Airport) for their final trip to the sanctuary. They come from Mississippi - Farm Sanctuary, Animal Place and some members from HSUS went to the region, looking for farmed animals. They found one farm with thousands of birds still alive nearly two weeks after the hurricane winds & resulting tornadoes tore through the place.
Rescuers worked from dark to dawn pulling live birds from piles of dead, dying and decomposing corpses. In the "dead pit", nineteen live chickens were netted and saved. One thousand of these birds were saved! Over seven hundred went to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen and we took 100.
They are only three-weeks old, and while they look like adult chickens, they sound like little baby peepers! They are absolutely adorable. :) We would love to adopt these birds out, but sexing them will be a nightmare...so, we will see how that goes.
Also, we made a final trip to an egg-laying facility in northern California. Last month, Animal Place and Marin Humane Society pulled 1,800 birds from the facility. While that number is a mere 1% of the 160,000 hens who were sent to slaughter, obviously the saved birds appreciate not being killed. Anyway, 100 were still at the facility for some bizarre reason, so we brought them back to the sanctuary.
So, we have two hundred new chickens in temporary housing. It's very nice seeing the leghorn egg layers get the opportunity to exhibit chicken behaviors - wing flapping, sun bathing, dust bathes, pecking, scratching and running, heck WALKING, for the first time on solid ground.
Yay for chickens. :)
Rescuers worked from dark to dawn pulling live birds from piles of dead, dying and decomposing corpses. In the "dead pit", nineteen live chickens were netted and saved. One thousand of these birds were saved! Over seven hundred went to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen and we took 100.
They are only three-weeks old, and while they look like adult chickens, they sound like little baby peepers! They are absolutely adorable. :) We would love to adopt these birds out, but sexing them will be a nightmare...so, we will see how that goes.
Also, we made a final trip to an egg-laying facility in northern California. Last month, Animal Place and Marin Humane Society pulled 1,800 birds from the facility. While that number is a mere 1% of the 160,000 hens who were sent to slaughter, obviously the saved birds appreciate not being killed. Anyway, 100 were still at the facility for some bizarre reason, so we brought them back to the sanctuary.
So, we have two hundred new chickens in temporary housing. It's very nice seeing the leghorn egg layers get the opportunity to exhibit chicken behaviors - wing flapping, sun bathing, dust bathes, pecking, scratching and running, heck WALKING, for the first time on solid ground.
Yay for chickens. :)