HYDERABAD, India—In advance of World Hen Day on Oct. 10, Humane World for Animals celebrates the heart-warming story of a tiny chick called Tweety. She was left for dead on a trash pile at one of India’s largest egg farms but rescued just in the nick of time.
Sally Varma, public outreach senior specialist at Humane World for Animals India (formerly called Humane Society International India), found Tweety barely alive after she had been thrown away as rubbish on a trash pile alongside the lifeless bodies of other chicks.
Sally said: “She was very weak and had been thrown into the waste along with the dead ones. But I noticed she was still alive, so I knew I had to give her a second chance. To the egg industry her life was meaningless, but to me she was precious.”
Sally took the chick home and nursed her back to health with patience and compassion. She named her Tweety.
Sallys says: “Most people see hens as food. I see Tweety as family. She is my baby girl and she considers me as her mother because I saved her when she was just days old. She snuggles into my arms and dozes off feeling safe. She has a great personality, she feels joy and shows affection, all the characteristics we more usually recognize in dogs and cats. Every day with her reminds me why I do the work I do, creating a world where animals’ lives matter and their value isn’t reduced to what’s on a dinner plate. It can be easy to forget that within the unfathomably large animal agriculture industry of billions of animals, there are individual lives just as precious as that of my little Tweety.”
Five fascinating facts about chickens:
- Chickens see more colours than people—they have visual sensitivity in the ultraviolet range.
- Chickens talk to each other, using more than 30 vocalisations including purring like a cat when happy.
- Chickens love to sunbathe and will spread out their wings on a sunny day.
- Chickens are smart—they can not only remember people, places and each other but they are also pretty good at problem solving.
- Even before hatching, chicks can talk to their mother through the eggshell, peeping to let her know they’re cold and need to be moved.
Sadly, most of the billions of farmed chickens around the world are unable to practice their natural behaviours because they are confined to tiny cages or bred to grow faster than their own body can sustain them.
By choosing to eat with compassion, with meals such as delicious plant-based chicken and egg alternatives that are packed with protein—and none of the cruelty―we can make the world a kinder place.
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