Check Out the Website For Eastern Shore Sanctuary

The Eastern Shore Sanctuary is amazing. These volunteers work day and night to rescue chickens, many who have fallen from factory trucks, and fighting roosters as well as an assortment of other birds who are able to live the remainder of their lives at the sanctuary. Please visit their website http://www.bravebirds.org/ to read the amazing rescue stories. Also, be sure to visit Virgil Butler's blog http://cyberactivist.blogspot.com/ . He is a chicken slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist and he is also blogging today to raise money for the Eastern Shore Sanctuary.

Please see the photos below for my own amazing chicken rescue story. I am actually blogging today in memory of Bonnie, aka Chicky Butt, who had more personality and charm than I ever imagined a chicken could have. She was the first chicken I ever really met and got to know. I was feeding my neighbor's Rhode Island Reds for her while she was away for a month when I noticed one hen being picked on by the others. She had a hole pecked into her back as round as a quarter and an inch deep. I carried her up to our house where I treated her wound and watched her excitedly dig up half the lawn in search of worms. The coop where she had been was dirt and straw. My neighbor said we could keep her.

She made herself right at home among four cats and five dogs and slept on the arm of a porch chair at night. She would curl up in my lap and fall asleep as I would pet her soft feathers. I swear, I never knew a chicken could be so loving! If you touched her belly, her eyes would pop wide open and she'd lean forward to look and see what was going on down there! She would also snore (yes, I said snore). In February of 2005 (after we had her for a year) I took her to the vet after noticing she did not look well. The vet said he was not sure what was wrong but that she was very ill and would have to be euthanized. He told me that she was more sick than she let on. I did not know that chickens try to look well when they are not because in a chicken coop, the other chickens will kill a sick chicken. I swear, sometimes I still hear her clucking happily around the yard . What a joy she was to have around! She is missed very much!