Arwen

Arwen is the princess of our flock. No one can deny her beauty. She is named after Arwen the elven princess in Lord Of The Rings because of her unparalleled beauty. Arwen has never really liked humans very much, she prefers to keep to herself and spend time with her chicken friends rather than with me.

Arwen was rescued in May 2013 from a battery cage farm in Gippsland. She was found starving on the floor with a group of other hens. The entire shed had been cleared of hens in cages. 80,000 18 month old hens had reach the end of their productive egg laying life in this farm and had been ripped out of their cages and thrown on a truck in the cold night air to be driven to the abattoir to be slaughtered. Arwen and her friends had obviously been thrown to the floor or had escaped the workers hands somehow and fell to the ground. They hid underneath the cage towers for many days without food or water and with broken wings and legs.

Depopulation happens at every single egg farm in the world whether it be a cage farm, a free range farm or a barn laid farm, all hens get sent off to slaughter at 18 months of age and replaced with young hens so that the farmer can get the maximum amount of eggs out of every single hen. Chickens can live up to ten years old.

Arwen was rescued with a bunch of other girls hiding under those cages. Some had legs so badly broken that they were euthanised at the vets, others had broken wings which healed after they came to live with me.

Arwen is beautiful, dignified, proud and a survivor of an incredibly cruel industry that does not believe that chickens are thinking, feelings beings.

Please don’t use my images without permission. All images are Copyright Tamara Kenneally