Chickens exploited for meat spend their short lives in overcrowded sheds,
never breathing fresh air or feeling the sun on their feathers.


They are taken to slaughter at only six weeks of age.
Little Song was lucky... she fell from the truck headed for the factory
and ended up at the Sanctuary.


Slick was not so lucky. A "broiler breeder" rooster kept to fertilize eggs,
Slick lived out his days with a plastic "Noz Bone" through his septum.
These barbaric devices are used to keep the half-starved "breeder" roosters
out of the cages containing the meager food for the "breeder" hens.


At the sanctuary, birds like Song and Slick are free.


They can live normal lives and have normal relations with other birds.
Here, Charlie Parker serves as foster father for a new member of the flock.


Hens exploited for eggs spend their lives in these hellish installations
known as "battery cages." They cannot stretch their wings, preen, or do
anything at all except perch uncomfortably on the wires of the cages.
They never see the sun or the sky and never get to lay their precious eggs
in the peace and privacy they crave.


When they arrive at the sanctuary, former egg factory inmates are in
unspeakably poor condition. Besides being severely debeaked, they have lost
many of their feathers and are extrememly thin and pale.


Some can barely walk, after so many months of immobility.
Many are in such bad shape that it almost hurts to look at them.


After a few months of fresh air and freedom,new feathers begin to grow.


Now they can lay their eggs in peace, in the hollow of an old tree...


...Or in a nest at the base of a big pine tree.


Thanks to the care of sanctuary supporters like these youngsters,
former egg factory inmates like these hens can recover to lead happy lives.

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