Why did the chickens cross the Cook Strait? It's not the start of a joke - this afternoon a truck carrying chickens rescued from a farm in Dunedin did just that.
They had been picked up by animal rights activists who have been on a road trip adopting them out along the way.
Instead of a chicken run, these chooks are being housed in a chicken truck, at least temporarily.
"We've had more people want to home hens than we've had hens to home and I think it's been quite inspiring to see people get behind the hens and want to help them out," says Jasmine Gray from animal rights group Farmwatch.
They have been on a road in the South Island finding homes for nearly 300 chickens who needed a place to go after an Otago battery farm where they were housed shut down last month.
"It's going to be up to their new caregivers to teach them how to be chickens again and give them good nourishment and a good lovely free range environment," says Helping You Help Animals co-founder Carolyn Press-McKenzie.
"In return they'll get really lovely eggs and some really lovely funny moments, because they're neat birds."
Pictures were taken inside the farm last year by a Farmwatch, who say the chickens were in cramped, inhumane conditions.
3 News was unable to contact the owner, but the Ministry for Primary Industries who oversaw the farm says on each visit the property met the Layer Hen code of Welfare.
Mosgiel resident Caroline Hunter took four of the hens – three of them survived.
"My heart kind of melted when I heard that it was getting close to D-Day for the chooks being rehoused from the farm and we certainly aren't alone in that," says chicken owner Erin Maxwell.
In Christchurch Ms Maxwell was counting her chickens - seventy of them were dropped off at her Shirley home this morning. She has now re-homed all of them.
"If you have a look at them they're in good condition by farm standards - but not by mine," she says.
From Christchurch the truck travelled to Blenheim to drop off some more, before crossing the Cook Strait to get to the other side.
3 News
source: newshub archive
