1,500 California hens headed for chicken sanctuary

About 1,500 hens have been rescued from a California factory farm and are on their way to a sanctuary for chickens.|
JANIE HAR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VACAVILLE — About 1,500 hens have been rescued from a California factory farm and are on their way to a sanctuary for farm animals.

Gary Smith, a spokesman for the animal sanctuary said the chickens were taken Thursday morning from a farm in the Central Valley. The hens are between 1 and 2 years of age, and too old to be productive egg layers.

Volunteers with Animal Place in Vacaville will clean and rehabilitate the hens and get them ready for adoption.

Smith said hens make wonderful pets. They adapt quickly to life as regular, free-roaming hens. They still lay eggs, just not enough for factory farms.

Animal Place works with factory farms to take in older hens that would otherwise have been gassed or buried.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.
Send a letter to the editor