Rescued chickens see the sun

[Guest guest]

Thanks to Carla for posting the sfgate article about the rescue.

 

Here's another article about the chicken rescue. I like that this one tied in the fact that people can also help the chickens by not eating eggs, since most of the eggs sold come from fatory farms like this.

 

Cheers,

Tammy

 

==============================

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/articles/2005/08/16/local_news/news04.txt

 

 

 

 

 

Rescued chickens see the sun

 

 

 

Stephanie Marohn sits and clips the nails of some chickens that were rescued from an egg farm in Gilroy. The chickens were part of 160,000 that were being sent to a slaughter house. Photo by Mike McCoyBy Ian Thompson VACAVILLE - More than 700 egg farm-raised chickens got their first glimpse of sunlight and a chance to scratch in the dirt when they stumbled out of the truck that carried them to The Animal Place.

The Vacaville farm animal sanctuary only expected to rescue 300 of the birds, but ended up with 700 of them rescued from an egg farm located near Gilroy.

"We worked like mad all day pulling them out one at a time," The Animal Place director Kim Sturla said of the weekend rescue effort.

Sturla is now looking for homes for the chickens, who spent their lives cooped up in small cages laying eggs until they were deemed too old and sent off to be slaughtered.

She is using the services of the Peninsula Humane Society and the Marin Humane Society to place the chickens where they can live out their egg-laying lives in peace.

It all started a month ago when Sturla got a call from a man who had just bought the land the egg farm was on and who planned to get rid of the 160,000 chickens there.

"He was not thrilled that he got the chickens along with the land," Sturla said.

The man gave Sturla and a nationwide network of similar animal groups first shot at rescuing the healthiest of the chickens and finding homes for them before the chickens were sent to be killed.

Sturla's group of volunteers drove down five trucks and brought the chickens to The Animal Place during the weekend.

More than 200 have been placed with adoption groups and humane societies so far, Sturla said.

"These birds were born in incubators and put in cages about double the size floor space of a record album," Sturla said. "They have never been outside. They have never touched the earth, never seen the sun shine."

This is not the first time that The Animal Place has rescued chickens.

Five years ago, after a tornado tore through an Ohio egg farm, the group brought several hundred of the surviving chickens west to be adopted out. Some are still at The Animal Place.

The rescued chickens are still getting used to their new circumstances.

"Most of them are literally (sleeping) on top of each other because that is their comfort zone," Sturla said. "Some of the braver ones are exploring."

Those wanting to adopt a chicken from The Animal Place can call the Peninsula Humane Society at (650) 340-7022 or the Marin Humane Society at (415) 883-4621.

Anyone wanting to help The Animal Place care for the birds can make financial contributions by calling 449-4814 or going online to www.animalplace.org.

"A third way to help is to give up eating eggs, since 98 percent of the eggs in the market came from places like this," Sturla said.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson.