Kincraig event will see liberation for battery chickens

Chickens who have known nothing but cramped cages and darkness all their lives are set to feel the sun on their backs and the wind in their feathers - some of them in Badenoch - next month.

At her animal-loving home at Ardgeal just outside Kincraig, Lee-Anne Dawson told the Strathy of the work done by Wing and a Prayer Hen Rescue.

“They’re the first charity, set up in 2014, to rescue hens from commercial farms when flocks are replaced. They see to it that the birds are saved from slaughter and find the retirement homes they deserve.

“Based at Haddington near Edinburgh, they are a non-profit organisation, run by volunteers, all their funds invested back into the charity to ensure more hens find their retirement homes.

“Since becoming a volunteer I have held rescues here.

“We’re having one on May 18. Volunteers make a donation to the charity and we arrange a day for the new owners to collect their hens.

“It’s normally the day of the rescue or the day after depending on where they’ve been rescued from.

“My collection is relatively small, I just take as many as have been reserved for collection. I don’t keep any.

“Quite a few in the strath have rescued from Wing and a Prayer. I get quite a lot from Inverness and Aberdeenshire too.”

Companies who provide eggs for hatching projects rarely take them back, and chickens can not go to other farms due to strict biosecurity measures.

Anyone who wants to rescue a few ex commercial hens can do so by visiting: https://www.wingandaprayerhenrescue.scot/rehome

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