Photo of Beaky by Emma Osborne
According to recent media reports, Britain has gone from a nation of shopkeepers to a nation of chicken keepers. Some 700,000 of us Brits are apparently enjoying the delights of keeping hens. The British Hen Welfare Trust has had a hectic media week with chicken keepers and their ex-batts appearing on national TV and radio, promoting the plight of battery hens and the benefits of keeping them as pets.
Battery farming has a terrible effect on chickens. Photo of Charlotte on Rescue Day by Amy Chamberlain.
A recent study by the University of Bristol’s Animal Welfare and Behavior Research Group has found that mother hens show signs of “clear physiological and behavioral response to their chicks’ distress.” During the experiment the chicks were exposed to a puff of air in their faces and the reactions of the mother were monitored. Previously used indicators of emotional distress were recorded, including heart rate and eye temperature. The mother hen’s heart rate increased and eye temperature decreased, indicating both that she was under stress at the sight of her chicks’ predicament and of her feelings of empathy towards them. Empathy is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”
Photo by Jo Barlow
We have recently reached a very important milestone down here in Cornwall. Our chicken, Audrey, celebrated her first free-range year out of the battery cage. This is a massive achievement for her, and for us. This time last year I had never even held a chicken, let alone cared for one, given her medicine, cuddled her, soothed her or washed and blow dried her ‘knickers’ – just some of the many tasks I have recently undertaken. But for Audrey, it has been an even bigger achievement. Since leaving the battery cage she has changed from a featherless, oven-ready, terrified little hen into the “pin-up-girl” we have today. Not only has she lived her free-range life to the full – foraging, sunbathing and dust bathing – but she has fought illness (the same one that heartbreakingly took her two sisters, Aurora and Agatha, in the spring), encountered new ex-batt chickens to share her days with and even developed a few wrinkles.
Photo by Photojournalis Alton Stupp via flickr
The recent events in Indonesia where animal welfare group, Animals Australia, filmed footage of Australian cows being brutally treated by abattoir workers, has caused such an outcry in Australia that the government has suspended live exports to 11 Indonesian abattoirs. Australians watching the footage on ABC of the cows being whipped, slashed, kicked and having their heads banged against concrete floors were horrified, some admitting to being physically sick.
Photo of Sophie Mccoy
When I enthuse about the merits of ex-batts, their quirky natures, their sustainability and their sheer gorgeousness, many of you reply with the same comment. That much as you would like to have ex-batts, but you are not able to have chickens in your gardens due to planning rules, difficult landlords, neighbors etc, which is such a shame as ex-battery chickens make brilliant pets, become great garden helpers, are a stepping stone towards a sustainable lifestyle, in addition to producing the most beautiful free range eggs.
The free-range girls with their coop and nest box. Photo by Jo Barlow.
When our little chicken, Audrey, was entombed in her battery cage she was subjected to 18 hours artificial daylight to encourage her to lay an egg every day. This unnatural level of production made her financially viable for the farmer – he wanted his money’s worth out of her. However, laying this amount of eggs puts a great strain on her little body and depletes it of essential calcium.
Canadian seal slaughter protest. Photo by alezarg via flickr
The Canadian seal cull is a completely abhorrent practice, more suited to a video nasty than a legal activity. It can surely only be greed that motivates these ‘men’ to butcher and murder these babies. However, whilst the world watches in horrified disbelief at the actions of the Canadian fishermen and government, another seal cull is quietly taking place much closer to home (well, for me anyway).
Photo of Agatha. By Jo Barlow.
There comes a time, even in an ex-battery hen’s life, when her wings may need to be clipped. Wing clipping is a quick and painless process of literally clipping the primary flight feathers of one wing rendering the chicken unbalanced — and consequently not able to fly. There are two schools of thought on whether or not wing clipping is a good thing. One argues that with one wing clipped, the hen is confined to the security of her garden and it is therefore essential for her safety. The other is that in case of an attack, from a fox, badger etc, the unclipped hen will be able to fly to safety. A hen with one clipped wing would not.
Photo by Paolo Camera via flickr
Here in Britain, as a nation of animal lovers, we sit in our ivory towers and tutt indignantly at the animal rights record of other countries. We righteously recoil in horror at the Canadian annual seal cull. How can they murder such beautiful baby seals? We sign petitions against the the Chinese for buying live turtles as key rings — the turtle’s death supposedly bringing the owner good luck. How can they torture such enchanting creatures? And our close neighbors, in Spain, seem to enjoy the public slaughtering of bulls by their glamorous, charismatic matadors, cheered on by a rapturous crowd. Bullfighting would never be allowed over here.
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