Beautiful Jupiter. I always thought she looked other worldly. I named her “Jupiter” because on one of the nights after we got her, you could clearly see the planet Jupiter up in the sky.
Jupiter was rescued from a battery cage farm in Werribee in January 2013. The farm is very much in the middle of suburbia. They have one huge chicken shed on the property, their house and a cafe that they also run. People visit that cafe and eat their eggs in the mornings not even considering the lives of the hens in the shed about ten metres away from them. Next door to the shop is a little room and in this little room are cages filled with hens. These hens are the hens who have reached the end of their profitable egg laying lives (at 18 months old) and these are the hens that this farmer tries to sell to the public as “soup chickens”. These girls are so sick, so emaciated, so tired and so broken. Their poor little bodies and souls had been through so much and their lives will end when someone comes along, pays 5 dollars and then kills them in their own backyard. This is the room that Jupiter was found in. This is the room that Jupiter was rescued from with 11 other hens. Those girls were so lucky. It’s a room where I am unable to take photos due to it’s proximity to the house, but I can tell you that it is just disgusting. The cruelty these birds endure whilst people come in and pay these farmers for their cruelty makes me want to throw up. You need to be aware of what you are eating, of who you are hurting and what you are contributing to.
Jupiter now lives her life at Lefty’s Place happily and peacefully. She is a chicken who likes her own space and to do her own thing. She’s not a people chicken and would rather spend time alone than with me or with the flock. She loves sunflower seeds and will just about kill to get her claws on some spinach leaves!