It
has been a long time since I have last told you a story, but the truth is that
apart from taking the Ester week off, I have been busy with other things.
Anyway, I am going on and on and I better get focused. I just wanted to tell
you that we have rescued 200 chickens from a henhouse. Those kind of chickens
that are typically abused to get their eggs. Those kind of chickens that live
their entire lives in a cage and when they are no longer profitable they are
taken to the slaughterhouse, being this their last and only chance to ever see
the sunlight.
To
tell you the truth, this is one of the rescues I feel more proud about. Because
before this, I never understood why rescuing chickens could be this important.
It seems such a small grain of sand in the desert! We rescued 200 but in that
same place, one million hens were sacrificed! I have become a hen´s fan because
although it is only 200 hens, they are 200 animals that are living freely,
enjoying the sun, the ground, enjoying each other’s company and also the
company of a rooster, who, by the way feels the happiest among everybody else! For
me, it has been very touchy to have been part of the team that, despite all the
selfishness that we, as humans, bear, has been able to release these animals
into a more natural life. To participate in their rediscovery of joy for life.
They came with us inside their little cages, behaving like “eggs makers”,
instead of animals. We brought them and when we opened their cages they didn’t
want to step out, they couldn’t even walk. I opened their doors expecting them
to run away searching for freedom, but nothing further from reality. They had
spent their entire life inside a cage and they could not walk. We them took
them out (many of them feathersless) and wherever we put them, they would stay
altogether, still and fearful. These last few days it has been raining dogs and
cats in Medina, but they wouldn’t look for a refuge under one of the booths
built for them. Instead Simonetta and I would have to take them one by one and put them inside
the henhouse all soaked. We kept them there for days and little by little they
started learning. At the beginning they didn’t know how to reach a pole to
rest. They just would get close to each other looking for protection and heat,
so much heat that we have lost 20 of them from suffocation. They had even lost
their instinct for hatching their eggs and all their animal instincts. Even
more, one of them who had a dislocated leg was put inside the henhouse and
spent a week without moving at all.
Fortunately
Mother Nature is wise and has taken care of this. Many of the hens have stayed
with us for several weeks already and now they behave “naturally”. When they
see me coming in, they follow me running and flapping their wings, because they
know I am bringing them food. They dig on the floor, lay on the ground and lift
their wings to catch warmth, they have sand baths, climb to the poles, sing,
lay eggs in the nests, eat grass, feel a cock on them although they do not know
very well what is that for and no one has died anymore.
And when I come in, they come
to welcome me and this may sound strange, but I can see a smile on their beaks
and happiness glowing in their eyes. It is probably silly but I think they are
now happy hens and they repeat it to me every time I see them. Now I say that
we have adopted chickens and I am proud to be able to give them an enjoyable
life and be able to restore some of how much they have done for us. I am a
chicken fan. I am given so many bites, hugs, purrs and now also loving cackles.
Fermin
PS.
The limping chicken is still alive and is very funny to see how it moves as is
hopping from place to place, and the last news is that they are starting to
have some feathers and they just look lovely funny.
