With love, from Rhode Island
Everyone likes fan mail; we are no exception.
We were recently graced with a letter from a little girl named Maddie from Rhode Island. She lost her beloved hen, Sally, whom she loved as a family member. She, and her mom had been following our work all the way on the other side of the U.S. Coast (California), and in honor of her beloved Sally, Maddie took upon a collection jar around her neighborhood to donate to the birds at Little Red Bird Sanctuary.
Maddie’s story means so much to us. Not only does this show that outreach has connected with folks all the way across the other side of the U.S., it also instills hope that the future generation will see chickens with a different eye: sentient beings with the right to live life freely without expectation to produce or be valued based on their ability to produce economically.
A legacy and voice to her sisters.. ambassador and Internet star
Topaz is one of our more famous ambassadors who discovered fame through social media earlier this year. Her story had been circulated nearly 100,000 times (check it out here: ttps://www.facebook.com/FreeFromHarm/videos/1663577270321940/). Folks have repeated expressed shock at the level of impact her genetics have had on her body - programmed to lay eggs until her body self-destructs - but the reality is that her story is commonplace, and no different than any of the 300,000,000 hens in the U.S. egg industry.
After spending her first 18 months of life pumping out eggs for human consumption, she was resold to a second egg farm where her miserable existence crammed in a wire cage was extended by another 18 months in an effort to drain the last bit of productivity from her fragile, 3-lb. frame.
While hundreds of millions of her sisters’ stories end there––executed and disposed of once their worth to society wears out––she defied the odds and made it to rescue; however, her body had been so exhausted by genetic manipulation, forced to pump out such an extreme and unnaturally high number of eggs, that, like an overused, aging machine, it was destined to break down. Upon rescue, her abdomen was so full of liquid egg that she struggled to stand upright or even breathe, and she was rushed to the vet that day. In surgery, nearly 2 pounds of egg poured out of her. She is now outside living the life that had been repeatedly stolen from her, where she is free to breathe fresh air, run around with her friends, bathe in the dirt, soak in the sun, and, if all goes well, live out the true duration of her life without having to suffer from her body going haywire again.
Topaz’s story is no different than pretty much any other egg-production hen’s: trapped in a body genetically programmed to self-destruct. We see this every single day. We look into their eyes, see their pain, know their value as sentient lives, not egg machines. Battery caged, cage-free, or free-range––the hens all suffer the same fates, as the conditions in which they are kept are merely different means to the same end, to the same production of the same product that yields the same physiological destruction.
Today, Topaz has joined the ranks of our other ambassadors, sharing her story in hopes that it will give a voice to the millions of her sisters who will never have one, and help shine a light on the cruelty built into every egg. The left picture below is Topaz upon arrival to our sanctuary, and the right is her after her life-saving surgery.
Attachments:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
