Little Hen Rescue

Chicken welfare is a cause close to my heart, actually chickens generally, and because of that I make no apologies for blogging on the subject.

Little Hen Rescue are currently trying to re-home 10,000 ex-battery chickens. A battery farm is closing and any chickens without a home to go to will be sent to slaughter.  You can read what Sky News has to say here.  Any chickens that are re-homed will only go to homes where they will be kept as pets and will be subject to future checks. 

If you have the room, I urge you to offer a home to some chickens. They are incredibly sociable and friendly animals with funny personalities, just like a dog or cat. Mine will run to the backdoor as soon as I go in the garden and chatter away, they go mad for treats like sweetcorn and will let you know they’re happy to be picked up by squatting next to you.

If you don’t have the room to re-home, or you don’t have the time to care for them, there are other ways you can help these chickens.  You can make a donation, foster, sponsor a hen or knit them jumpers. Yes – knit them a jumper! You can see from the photo’s on this page why the jumpers are needed.

These 10,000 chickens need re-homing by the 28th June, otherwise they are booked for slaughter on the 29th.  Your support is needed.

Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too

Monday night saw the return of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too, following on from his previous program (which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of – terrible, considering I blogged about it at the time!). Anyway, this program followed HFW trying to speak with Tesco regarding chicken welfare and spoke about measures that other companies are taking and there was a look at the different conditions that chickens are bred in.  The programme also focused on the labelling that supermarkets use for their chickens and whether it is misleading to the general public. HFW’s website has a great section on this and its worth looking at and casting your vote as to which label you believe to be the most misleading.   

 The programme showed the excellent progress that some supermarkets have made and obviously focused on Tesco as being one of those that HFW doesn’t believe to be hitting the welfare standards. I was following HFW’s campaign anyway, but will certainly be following it with a renewed interest as I now have some feathered friends of my own – which I shall blog about later!

Chicken Out! Campaign

More than 850 million chickens are slaughtered in the UK, every year. More than 95% of those are reared inside sheds that are enclosed. As the birds start to grow, they have less and less room to roam or even stretch their wings. A typical shed holds 40,000 birds. They never get to leave the sheds and they never see natural light.

Whilst I’m not a vegetarian, I just don’t see how anyone can think that this is acceptable treatment of an animal. A chicken should live outside – it’s only natural. Free range chickens have space to roam outside, play and they can go inside if they wish.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall is behind The Chicken Out! Campaign which is demanding higher welfare conditions for chickens farmed in the UK and fairer conditions for the farmers that rear them. You can read more about the campaign and the changes Hugh is looking for here. Unfortunately it would appear that the supermarkets don’t share his concerns when it comes to the welfare of chickens. It has been reported that Tesco are demanding a staggering £86,000 for Hugh to put his concerns to their shareholders. You can read through the articles on the Chicken Out! Press Page.

It only takes a few moments, so I’d urge you to follow the simple instructions and put your support behind the campaign.