Little Hen Rescue

  At the weekend we volunteered at Little Hen Rescue, who are at littlehenrescue.co.uk . This is a brilliant not-for-profit organisation based just south of Norwich which rescues and rehomes thousands of battery hens.
   For some people it might be a sticking point that LHR pay the farmers for the hens but the amount is only about 30p per hen, and for this a life is saved. Volunteers for LHR go to a farm on a rescue weekend and load up a barnful of hens into crates and then drive them back to Little Hen Rescue at Florden. When the girls arrive more volunteers are waiting to unload them as quickly as possible and put them into clean cosy stables with food and water. The following day is rehoming day and adopters arrive by appointment to collect the hens they have requested and take them to their new permanent homes.
  We took the children along to help; I think the hens were somewhat bigger close up than they imagined they were going to be but they did really well and were able to help lift the hens gently out of the crates and put them on the floor of the stable.
  The hens seemed to perk up very quickly- it was the hottest day of the year so far, so we wanted to get them out of the crates as quickly as possible- but they seemed to be coping very well  with it all. Most of the stables had some perches in but by the time we left only one or two hens had ventured on to a perch- even though roosting is such a natural thing for a bird to do, these poor hens have never had the opportunity to do so and have to learn to roost.
  Although many or most people will be adopting hens with a view to eating their eggs, but LHR makes clear that the hens are being adopted as pets for life (altho' they will always take them back should an adopter's circumstances change), and good homes are also found for hens with various health problems and disabilities, many of whom will not be laying eggs at all.
  Little Hen Rescue, founded and run by vegetarian Jo Eglen, is responsible for saving thousands of lives. Last weekend when we went to help unload the hens there were over 650 hens who were due to be slaughtered as they were 'end of lay', who, now, thanks to LHR, are starting new lives as pets.
  If you are interested in helping out on one of the Rescue and Rehoming weekends, knitting a hen sweater, or could give a forever home to some deserving ex-battery hens, then have a look at the LHR website littlehenrescue.co.uk and see what you can do to help.

Tour of Wood Green Animal Shelter

 We went on a trip to Wood Green Animal Shelters www.woodgreen.org.uk, Godmanchester with some other home educating families and were impressed by what we saw. The animals look very well cared for and the facilities are very good. The kennel block for the dogs which was state of the art when it was built in the 1980's is now being replaced as research has apparently shown that dogs relax better when they can't see each other so their accomodation is being completely redesigned.

   We don't go to zoos as we prefer seeing animals wild and free but it was interesting to take a look behind the scenes at an animal shelter and for the children to get a chance to meet ferrets, rats, dogs, goats, ex-battery hens and  guinea pigs. I think that wherever you stand on the issue of companion animals, there's no denying that these animals at Wood Green need caring permanent homes, so it was good to see them being so well looked after.

    We treated ourselves the other day and tried some new marshmallows which we bought on ebay. They were called Ananda's Homemade Fresh Vegan Marshmallows. We've always planned to sell marshmallows in our new vegan online shop, but this is not the brand that we'd planned to stock, so we were curious as to what they'd be like. 

  As far as we are concerned we're all on the same side here, so I wouldn't want to be too dismissive about them; plenty of people have given positive feedback about so there are some happy vegans out there eating this brand of marshmallows! But we didn't think they had that much flavour and didn't really have that billowy, pillowy texture that you really want in a marshmallow, so we were slightly disappointed.
  If you want to try some delicious vegan treats then come and visit us at www.veganation.co.uk in a couple of weeks and browse our selection of goodies.