Rescue & Adoptions

2007 Featured Rescues

Nine Bantam Chickens Rescued From Fire Escape in the City

Chickens were never meant to live in metal cages confined on factory farms. They were also never meant to live outside in the dead of winter on a fire escape attached to an apartment building in New York City. This, however, is how Hiram, Khrush, Marisa, Gabriella, Rosario, Ramona, Regina, Lolita and Lola were found. They were living amongst pieces of trash - papers, plastic bags, old food containers, soda cans, food waste - that coated the floor of the rusty, metal fire escape they unhappily called "home." The only roosting places available to them were a nearby air conditioner and the top of an old metal birdcage.

A Farm Sanctuary friend found these gentle chickens one day when she was tending to a nearby feral cat colony that she fed regularly. When looking over to the building next door and seeing these beautiful birds in the most unnatural of places, she knew she had to take action and save them from a life of misery. With each passing day, as the temperatures at night dropped, she would see the chickens huddled together in a mound for warmth. The largest rooster, Hiram, bravely perched on top of the mound trying to keep the others as warm as possible. Food and water bowls were empty many days in a row.

The kind rescuer discovered that the bantams belonged to the superintendent of the apartment building. With the help of another Farm Sanctuary member in New York City, she pled for the release of the chickens. Not long after, the chickens were released to the care of the compassionate rescuer. Once they were safe in the transport vehicle, it was clear what had to be done. Many of them had frostbite, were missing toes, and had nails that were so long they were curling under their feet. They also all had severe infestations of leg mites and were under weight.

Knowing the chickens were in dire need of special care, they were whisked off to Animal General, a veterinary hospital in Manhattan who has trained staff who care for sick and injured pigeons and songbirds in the city, as well as companion animals. The hospital cared for the chickens, treated their leg mites and provided initial tests to see if they were healthy. They also agreed to board the bantams while plans were made to transport them to their final destination, Farm Sanctuary's beautiful New York Shelter in the Finger Lakes region. Two Farm Sanctuary members in New York City agreed to bring the nine lucky chickens to the sanctuary soon after.

Health care staff immediately went to work welcoming the chickens and giving them all the love and attention they deserved. They were given further health checks, their nails were trimmed, and they were continued on treatments for their leg mites. The bantams were given a warm pen in the incoming hospital area filled with straw, as well as fresh food and water, where their conditions could be monitored closely.

Now, within only a few weeks at the sanctuary their weight has increased to a healthy range. The leg mites, which can take a very long treatment regimen, are almost completely gone. All nine of the bantam chickens are sweet and happy, and they are adjusting well to their lives free from the metal confines of the fire escape. Now they can learn to live as they were always meant to; waking to fresh air and peaceful sunrises, then spending their days roaming and sunbathing in their barnyards, and scratching contentedly in the dirt.