It was pouring on the drive to the abattoir. It was pouring when I walked in to the abattoir. It was pelting down as I took my camera out from under my jacket to start taking photos. The storm that night was just starting. I walked past her in the crate a few times. I […]
Category Archives: Ex-Battery Hens
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 […]
Xena – Warrior Chicken
One Wednesday in August at dusk, me and a friend were driving home from catching up when we found ourselves behind a truck full of ex-battery hens headed for slaughter. This is not something I had ever seen, nor had she, so the only thing to do was follow this truck and follow we did. […]
Bronte
Bronte used to live at a commercial caged egg farm in northern Victoria. The farmer got rid of all his hens, most likely due to closing down his business or due to early depopulation (these girls were a lot younger than the usual 18 month olds that get sent to slaughter), and sent all of […]
Clover
Often in battery egg farms, we find hens walking around on the floor, out of the cages. We call them “floor girls”. How do those girls get out of the cages? We think they are taken out by workers who think they look ill. Perhaps the hens struggle and the workers drop them and then […]