activism · animal

5 Fascinating Facts About Chickens to Celebrate International Respect for Chickens Day

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May 4th is International Respect for Chickens Day. Launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005, International Respect for Chickens Day celebrates chickens throughout the world and protests their suffering and abuse in agribusiness, experimental research, cockfighting, and other cruelties. 

Celebrate chickens by learning these amazing facts:

  1. Chickens can distinguish between more than 100 faces of their own species.
  2. Chickens are real sleeping beauties—they experience rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which means they dream just like humans do.
  3. Chickens are just like human mothers who talk to their babies in the womb—a mother hen begins to teach calls to her chicks before they even hatch.
  4. Chickens communicate with more than 24 vocalizations, each with a distinct meaning, including warning their friends about different types of predators or letting their mothers know whether they’re comfortable.
  5. Chickens love to play and will run, jump and sunbathe.

“We urge everyone to do a compassionate ACTION for chickens, on May 4th or any time in the month of May,” says Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns which promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl.

“Happy chickens are cheerful birds,” says Karen Davis, who maintains a sanctuary for chickens in Machipongo, Virginia. “Chickens love the earth and sun, yet millions are sitting in filthy dark buildings on crippled legs breathing polluted air and suffering from debilitating diseases, as documented in my book Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs and in my Encyclopedia Britannica article Chickens: Their Life and Death in Farming Operations.”

For more information, visit United Poultry Concerns at www.upc-online.org.

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