Rebel Rebel

Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?

Rebel Rebel, I love you so

She was named after a David Bowie song because that’s exactly who she is, she is a complete Rebel. When there’s a chicken on the wrong side of the fence – it’s always Rebel Rebel. When there’s a chicken in the vegie patch – it’s always Rebel Rebel. When there’s a chicken on the roof – it’s Rebel Rebel. When there’s a chicken standing in a food bowl – it’s Rebel Rebel. It’s always Rebel Rebel. Her passion for life is overwhelming. She doesn’t want to be left behind, she doesn’t want to be left out and she certainly doesn’t want to be locked in a small cage in a shed with 5 other hens.

Rebel Rebel came from a disgusting battery cage farm in Gippsland, Victoria in mid 2013. She was rescued after the shed  she had lived in had been depopulated. She was left behind after the 80,000 hens in that one shed were ripped out of their cages, thrown on a truck and sent to slaughter. She and her friends hid whilst the workers grabbed her friends from out of the cages above her. She crouched under the cages with a broken wing and a body that was giving up. She had no water and no food and had been like that for quite some time. Before farmers depopulate their chicken sheds, they actually deprive the hens of food, sometimes for weeks.

The farm floor that Rebel Rebel was found on.

One of the dead hens on the floor of the farm.

Rebel Rebel was so lucky to have been found and rescued with some of her friends who were also left to die on the floor. She came to live with us and even with her sickly body with her broken wing, all she wanted to do was explore and live life to the fullest. Chickens love life, they just love it. Their entire happiness is based on being connected to the earth. If you’ve watched a chicken foraging with passion or dustbathing or sunbaking you will know how much the earth means to the them. To take the sky and the earth and the grass away from these beautiful little birds is so incredibly cruel. We don’t need eggs, but these chickens need the earth.

Rebel Rebel will continue to defy the rules of Lefty’s Place and be found in places she shouldn’t go. No one tells Rebel Rebel what to do. This is her life and she’s now free.

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