Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2010 | Page 96

country life Island Life - August/September 2010 Charity celebrates 200,000 hens! Corks popped at Devon-based charity the British Hen Welfare Trust as its 200,000th hen was re-homed on Saturday. Founded in 2005, the charity ice-cream, ready meals and cakes. Reading has since found homes for over 200,000 food labels and only choosing free range can ex-battery hens which were otherwise make a big difference to the quality of life destined for slaughter. for hens like Fizz.” Aptly named ‘Fizz’, the 200,000th lucky Under Sam’s loving care, Fizz is now happily hen has been re-homed to 8 year old settled in to her new retirement home and is hen-enthusiast Sam Bradley from Ivybridge enjoying her new found freedom. Apart from near Plymouth. Sam, who wants to be enjoying the free-range fun in Sam’s garden, a farmer when he grows up, has been she is already laying delicious eggs for the interested in chickens from an early age – family to enjoy! he saved up his 6th birthday money to buy To find out more or to support the work of rescue hens from the British Hen Welfare the British Hen Welfare Trust please email Trust and has been hen-mad ever since. [email protected] , log on to www.bhwt.org. Sam said: “I really love chickens. I collect their eggs every day when I come home from uk or tel: [phone] Ex-battery hens are available on the Isle school. Their favourite food is spaghetti, of Wight please contact our Co-ordinators, sweetcorn and worms. If it wasn’t for the Perrin & Corinne Carey by email at perrin. charity, the chickens would be killed.” [email protected] Jane Howorth, Chief Executive of the British Hen Welfare Trust said: ‘Rehoming 200,000 commercial laying hens like Fizz is a big milestone for the charity Photo: Sam pictured with Fizz Left: Michelle Garner, Matt Garner and Jane Howorth with the bottle of champagne. and a great achievement. But it’s the tip of the iceberg... in the UK, there are some 16 million battery hens kept in cages where they cannot perform natural behaviours such as scratching, stretching their wings or nesting, and they have no access to sunlight, fresh air or grass.’ She continued: ‘It’s increasingly clear that consumers will pay a little extra for free range products and we encourage support for British free range farmers. Less clear is the fact that a high percentage of eggs from caged hens are often hidden in food such as 96 Visit our new website - www.visitislandlife.com