Patty

After a short and painful life, egg-laying hens are slaughtered for low grade meat that is shredded and ground up for items such as soups and pot pies. They are killed systematically in huge numbers, without any laws that require they be unconscious at the moment of death. Billions of hens are "disposed of" this way each year because their capabilities as egg-laying machines are no longer profitable.

"Spent hens" are snatched from battery cages and carried upside down by the legs in handfuls of four or more. Their bodies are so weak and deteriorated that this callous handling sometimes results in broken bones or severed limbs. They are packed into tiny wire trays and loaded onto the truck that will carry them to the slaughterhouse. The birds will go without food or water for the duration of the trip and remain completely exposed to any temperature extremes, including those of a Minnesota winter.

At the slaughterhouse we investigated, birds were left to sit on trucks for hours, some even overnight. Patty was one hen who had somehow gotten free or fallen off of the truck. She was wandering around the parking lot unattended; nobody noticed or cared when we picked up this weak hen (whose worth had been degraded to a couple cents by the egg industry) and took her home.

We named Patty after Patty Mark, whose efforts with the Animal Action Rescue Team in Australia have been an inspiration to our campaign. Patty (the hen) spent a few weeks in a temporary home in our office before relocating to an animal sanctuary.