Autumn the Chicken Is a Finalist in PETA’s ‘Best Chicken Competition’
Autumn the Chicken Is a Finalist in PETA’s ‘Best Chicken Competition’
Antrim, Belfast – The “top flock” of feathery finalists have been chosen in PETA’s first-ever “Best Chicken” competition – and Autumn, a chicken rescued from an intensive egg farm, is among them. Voting is now open to the public to help determine the winner, who will be revealed by March 31.
According to her vegan guardian, Ali Millar, Autumn was rescued from a cage factory farm, where she was treated as an egg-laying machine. Her life had a hard start, but Autumn has grown into a beautiful, thriving chicken. She loves trying new toys and is obsessed with watches (win her heart by letting her zoom over and stare at your watch). “Chickens are incredibly intelligent and fast learners,” says Millar. “Their clucks are extremely emotive, and they’re so gentle and fun to be around.”
Photos are also available here. (Credit: Ali Millar)
“Even though her early life was filled with suffering, Autumn’s adventurous, curious spirit endured,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “All the courageous, resilient chickens in PETA’s competition are intelligent beings who value companionship and their own lives – and have formed unbreakable bonds with their loving guardians.”
The winning chicken will receive toys and treats – and the winner’s guardian will receive a prize pack that includes a T-shirt, a vegan cookbook, and more (plus bragging rights, of course). PETA will choose the winner based on several factors, including vote count. The other finalists are available here.
Chickens can recognize the faces of more than 100 other chickens; communicate with at least 24 unique vocalisations; establish complex social hierarchies; and roost together companionably. Yet chickens killed for their flesh are crammed into filthy sheds, where they’re forced to live in their own waste – and the runoff from these operations pollutes the environment and poisons local wildlife. At abattoirs, chickens’ throats are often cut while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in de-feathering tanks.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA UK on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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