The show will air between 11 AM and NOON, eastern time, on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

If none of your local radio stations will air the show, you can check it out online, either here: www.animalvoices.ca

or here:

www.ciut.fm.

For the animals,

Miriam

Below is a statement put forth by the Eastern Shore Sanctuary in conjunction with Animal Place, Chicken Run Rescue, Farm Sanctuary, Sunny Skies Bird and Animal Sanctuary, and United Poultry Concerns. In it we list the reasons why people should fight this growing trend of ordering and keeping backyard flocks of chickens, and what can be done should folks feel insistent upon doing so.

For the animals,

Miriam, Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center

Collective Position Statement on Backyard Poultry

In the past couple of years, the practice of keeping chickens in urban and semi-rural backyards has increased.

People keep chickens for a variety of reasons: opposition to factory farming; a desire to eat fresh eggs; a genuine love for chickens as companion animals. Like other fads, this one has drawbacks which hatcheries and chicken breeders don’t want you to know about.

If you truly enjoy the company of chickens and believe that all animals should be treated with kindness and justice, please consider these facts before organizing your own backyard flock:

¨Chicken feed and excrement attract rodents to your house.

Some of the Dangers of Living Near Rats

Hatcheries, like McMurray Hatchery, treat chickens no better than factory farms do. In fact, they ARE factory farms. Their treatment of chicks is abominable and comparable to the mistreatment of dogs in puppy mills.

Video of Hatchery Practices
Video of Turkey Hatchery with Similar Practices
Facts about Hatcheries

Sending chicks through the mail is abusive. Temperature-sensitive chicks should not be boxed up without food or water for up to 72 hours and transported through the postal service. Please note: Purchasing chicks at feed stores is the same as ordering them through the mail. Contrary to appearances, those chicks do not come from local farms, but from mega-hatcheries.

Dangers of Shipping Chicks by Mail
Dangers of Shipping Chicks by Mail, Part Two

¨ Hatcheries will send you roosters even if you ask them not to. They use roosters as packing material and chicken sexing is more art than science. While cities may be zoned for hens, most prohibit roosters, leaving them to be abandoned or killed at shelters.

Roosters as Packing Material

¨Chickens need proper housing and fenced-in yards to survive inclement weather and predators. They also need easy access to fresh food and clean water at all times, a clean yard and sleeping space and good veterinary care.

Providing a Good Home to Chickens
Providing a Good Home to Chickens Part Two
Providing a Good Home to Chickens Part Three

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

If you are not zoned for chickens, keep it that way! There are too many problems with chickens living in urban environments.

If your town or city is already zoned for chickens, check out the specifics of the ordinances and ensure that they are as humane as possible.

If you have read through all of this material and still want to live with chickens, adopt from a farmed animal sanctuary or animal shelter. Note, though, that sanctuaries have strict adoption protocols to protect the animals.

CONTACTS:

Animal Place
Chicken Run Rescue
Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center
Farm Sanctuary
Sunny Skies Bird and Animal Sanctuary
United Poultry Concerns

What’s especially nice is that some of our more feral-ish chickens (including some very young birds) have decided to hang out with them also. I say “especially” because these guys have never known the company of chickens unless it was a situation filled with fear and violence. Watching them peacefully scratching in the leaves together fills me with more happiness than I can possibly express.

And more melancholy also, of course, as I know full well that for every guy we help save, there are countless others who are either living in abject misery right now, or else doomed for death, even if they are rescued, because most folks are afraid to give them a chance.

In any case, there are three still under cages, being let out a few times a day until they fight and are put back in the cages. Some roosters need a bit longer to learn that fighting isn’t a great idea any longer. But they will learn; we’ve never worked with a rooster who was unreachable.

Wish we could say that about humans…..

For the animals,

Miriam, Eastern Shore Sanctuary

Lots going on for us in the computer world, so I wanted to bring you all up to speed. So to speak. We have two main news items to share.

First of all, we are on Facebook! Search for us as Eastern Shore Sanctuary, and become our friend!

Second of all, we have registered with Goodsearch.com! If you haven’t heard of them, here is the information:

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

And if you download the GoodSearch – Eastern Shore Sanctuary toolbar, our cause will earn money every time you shop and search online - even if you forget to go to GoodShop or GoodSearch first! Add the Eastern Shore Sanctuary toolbar at http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar

Until next time,

Miriam, Eastern Shore Sanctuary

We love our guys. We remain committed to providing good homes for as many of them as we can safely and healthfully house. However, physical space and group dynamics being what they are preclude us from taking in as many roosters as we would like to be able to do care for.

Are you living in a place where chickens are allowed to live (zoned agricultural)? Do you have room for a rooster or two? If so, drop us a line at sanctuary@bravebirds.org. We would love to talk with you about the possibility of adoption.

Yes, I’m referring to the crowing of the 23 roosters from Farm Sanctuary in combination with the crowing of the roosters who were already here, all of whom seem to set each other off. No wonder these guys are crowing up a storm! One day they’re scratching about in familiar dirt; the next day they are loaded onto a metal truck and plopped down in a new coop. How crazy is that?

But as with all of us, they are learning to adapt. It’s fall here in Vermont, of course, which means lots of falling leaves (their yard has lots of trees mixed in with some open areas), so they are having to get used to things falling upon them from the sky. They are having to get used to new smells, new tastes, new everything. But of course they have each other, and that’s been a big help I’m sure. I’m sure the roosters remaining at Farm Sanctuary are missing their brothers, but I’m also sure they too will learn to adapt, and in the end, as always, the hope is that the change is for their benefit.

Not wanting to forget the hens of COURSE! Four hens came with their friend Smokey the rooster at the same time. After a bit of hen-fighting (yes, it does happen) with some of the hens here, they calmed down. It seems that hens adapt much more quickly than roosters; Smokey is still getting used to not being the only boy. But he’s getting there.

If you’re a Facebook person, check out some photos of the new arrivals — yes, we have a new Facebook page! The pics will be uploaded in a couple-few days at most.

Can you hear the chickens clucking around your neighborhood, your block? Are they in your own backyard?

Raising backyard chickens has grown into a movement. But one by one, cities and towns are debating the right to raise chickens in the neighborhood — whether chickens are too loud, too smelly, or just too farm-like to live in urban and suburban backyards.

The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean opted to leave Manhattan for upstate New York, and gave chicken-raising a try. Now she’s hooked — and crowing about the joys of chickens.

This hour, On Point: Love ‘em or hate ‘em — backyard chickens.

Here’s a link to the show.

I’ve been trying to call and continue to get a busy signal, but I did post some rapidly-written comments (below). PLEASE take a moment and post your comments as well — you can do so long after the show is over, and people DO READ THEM.

Thanks,

Miriam, Eastern Shore Sanctuary

COMMENTS BELOW:

I just wanted to note a couple of things, and if they have already been noted, I apologize; I haven’t read through all of the comments yet.

First and foremost the purchase of chickens through the mail is horrifically abusive. Many die and if they don’t die, they suffer. Imagine mailing a puppy; you wouldn’t. Second, the breeding of chickens and taking babies from their mothers is horrifically abusive also.

Put these two things together and you get a clear conclusion: DO NOT ORDER CHICKENS THROUGH THE MAIL. If you want a backyard chicken flock, find a local sanctuary and adopt some chickens.

I also simply have to speak to the hypocrisy of a world that wants to use living creatures for their eggs, but only on their own terms. Everything from throwing away half of the species (aka ROOSTERS) to condemning an animals for the noises they make (completely oblivious to the fact that we humans spew more noise pollution into the world than everyone else) — these things and more speak to a hypocrisy that is phenomenally disturbing. Common, yet horrible nevertheless.

If you are a backyard birder, as they are called, then it behooves you, ethically speaking, to fight for the rights of chickens to live the lives they want to live. That includes allowing hens to live with roosters (believe it or not, humans aren’t the only creatures who want the companionship of the opposite sex). That includes not ordering chickens through the mail as if they are inanimate objects. And that includes treating them as the precious creatures they are, remembering that your use of them for their eggs should be considered a gift you have to earn.

So, they called us and we made arrangements for them to bring her to us. The first night she spent in the coop, she was a bit disoriented by so many other birds, none of whom are in cages. But she was out and about with everyone else the first thing the next day, learning the joys of grass and dirt as well as the companionship of other birds.

When she got here, she wasn’t in the best shape (her comb was pale, many feathers were missing), but now she’s getting more color in her and her feathers are beginning to grow back, although that will take some time.

This is a very happy ending for a very special bird. But we cannot forget the tens of thousands of other birds who are not so lucky: purchased through the mail, plopped in a backyard, given various degrees of care (or lack thereof), so often tossed aside when neighbors or governments decide that their urban environments are somehow more appealing when the sound and sight of chickens is removed.

Just last week, Los Angeles voted to limit the number of roosters per household to one. How many mail-order birds will be kicked out or taken to the slaughterhouse as a result? And this is just one example of what’s happening across the nation as the backyard bird phenomenon gathers strength.

Again, please urge anyone you know who is contemplating the joys of eating eggs from their own chickens to rethink their plans! At the very least, all zoning ordinances should be examined prior to obtaining the birds (it’s generally quite easy to call the town clerk and find out the zoning for one’s particular area). Further, no birds should ever be ordered through the mail; there are many, many sanctuaries looking to rehome rescued hens and roosters, and there are also plenty of other places where people are “looking for a good home” for their birds.

Finally, before you decide to go for it, educate yourself as to the care of chickens. They don’t require much care when compared with, say, a dog or cat, but they certainly do have basic and particular needs for food, shelter, and (at times) medical attention. Be sure you know how to make a good home for your birds.

In the meantime, Coco will be enjoying the glorious fall weather here at the Eastern Shore Sanctuary.