The British Hen Welfare Trust (see www.bhwt.uk.org) takes care of birds past their top-laying period, but still only 2 years old. Instead of moving from battery cage hell to slaughter, thousands are at any time being transferred to people's gardens, as retired garden-helpers, pets and slow-layers with, finally, a chance to enjoy life. And hens really know how to enjoy it, given a chance - pecking and scratching, rolling in the dust, preening in the sun, chatting companionably to each other and following their human companions around the garden (and the house, if you let them) ... if they were cats they'd be purring.
British egg layers are still caged, but in larger cages where they can stretch their wings and walk about -- a fairly small change for producers that took a big time coming (several years prep). BHWT re-homed about 15,000 birds at the changeover in practices, the last hen, "Liberty," being liberated this week. Like all animal charities, BHWT needs donations, and has a fundraising store: check it out at their website. As we have seen from the tragic case of Jalupae the old Canadian gelding starved and then hanged by his "owner" who didn't want to pay vet bills (and abandoned by vets who didn't want not to be paid), senior animals everywhere are in dire need of retirement housing. Every community should have a space set aside for retired working animals, just as every town has a landfill site and a sewage system. It's part of civilization. Start by finding the ideal spot in YOUR town, and lobby for public and private funding to purchase and run it. Good luck.
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