Persephone

She was found one chilly September evening, clinging to life in a transport crate at the abattoir. Having spent 18 months in a battery cage, laying one egg a day for consumers, she then ended up in a crate waiting for death when she was no longer deemed “profitable”.
She had her head trapped in the side of the crate. She had absolutely no strength left in her. She was rescued.

She sat on my lap the whole car ride back to her new home (my friend’s house) and I was constantly checking if she was still alive. She was completely emaciated and so incredibly thirsty. I poured water in to my hand in the car and she weakly started to drink and from then on, she didn’t stop drinking. She was obsessed with water, she probably hadn’t had a drink for days.

Persephone’s beak would have affected her ability to eat the entire time she was in the cage egg farm. It had been cut so roughly, the bottom of her beak had been left too long and she found it difficult to eat. She was emaciated, not only from being starved before depopulation in the farm, but also because her beak was so terrible that she was unable to pick up enough food with it.

She was so weak and ill. She was taken to the vet and it was decided that she needed to have her beak trimmed quite dramatically for her to be able to eat and live a happy life. Phil at Burwood Bird Vet trimmed her beak and she went home to heal, recover and learn how to be a chicken.

Persephone spent the next few weeks living the life of a free chicken with my friend. She relished the heater that she shared with rescue hen, Xena, and got to experience days in the sun, the feel of dirt and the taste of grass. She got to experience the love of a human who desperately wanted her to live the life she was always meant to live. Persephone loved humans and craved affection, even after all the suffering humans had caused her.

Persophone left the world on September 25, 2016. Her body was just too weak and broken to continue. Her beautiful soul has travelled on to a place where she will always be free. She was loved for those few weeks and she knew that. She died with the dignity of being treated as an individual instead of being strung up by her feet and slaughtered in the most terrifying way.

All commercial egg layers end up at the abattoir – all of them.

Please remember this and Persephone when you are standing in front of the egg section at the supermarket.

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