Meghan Markle’s pups, Guy and Pula, are both rescue dogs. The former senior royal is on record as saying they’ve been a great source of comfort this past year ― a turbulent one, to say the least, since Meghan and husband Prince Harry stepped back from their official duties, fought multiple lawsuits with tabloids media outlets, and experienced heartbreaking baby loss.
During a two-hour interview with Oprah that aired Sunday, Meghan and Harry invited the former talk show host to put on “wellies” and visit their newest rescue animals ― a brood of hens. The former factory-farm birds are living their best life now in upgraded digs.
“Soon enough, they’re strutting around like they own the place!”
– Christen Shepherd, rescue hen volunteer
The young family’s little red coop is no Cluckingham Palace, but it’s fittingly humble, given the new life they’ve opted to lead. It has lots of space inside for roosting, and outside ― in a safely fenced yard ― for running around. The sign on the wall, which says “Archie’s Chick Inn, Established 2021,” is a sweet touch.
While rescuing small house pets such as dogs, cats and guinea pigs, is common in North America, rescuing hens typically flies under the radar. Yet there are grassroots groups and charitable organizations on both sides of the Atlantic dedicated to giving these birds a better life after they’re no longer laying enough eggs to be considered productive on a factory farm.
What’s the appeal in rescuing hens?
Hen rescue not only changes the lives of the birds, children get a lot out of it too, according to Christen Shepherd. The mother of six has rescued hundreds of hens from battery farms — which confine the birds in small cages — since 2008, to rehabilitate on her Ontario hobby farm. Then, they’re adopted out to good homes, where they’ll have the chance to act like birds. She has also run a farm therapy program, bringing kids from a nearby group home in to help nurture the hens and rebuild their trust in humans.
Why do hens even need rescuing?
In the Oprah clip, Meghan, Harry and Archie’s hens look healthy and full-feathered ― but that’s not the case when they first leave their battery cages. It takes about two months, Shepherd said, to rehabilitate a hen.
“We typically take chickens that have been have been kept their whole lives in a cage, with usually five to seven chickens in that small cage,” Shepherd told HuffPost Canada. In this environment, where their sole purpose is to lay eggs, the hens are unable to do activities they would naturally do.
“They can’t roost. They can’t stretch out. They go quite crazy in that environment,” said Shepherd. “They’re shoved in a cage for a year; and when egg production slows down, thousands of chickens at a time are sent for slaughter.”
According to the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals, an organization that promotes the welfare of animals raised for food in Canada, 26 million chickens lay eggs for human consumption in Canada. 90 percent of those hens are housed in battery cages. When their time is up, most go to slaughter, but rescuers like Shepherd also step in and either buy the “spent hens” or come to an agreement with their farmer to re-home them.
