the rescue report: Harvest Home!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Harvest Home!

What started out as a very sad and awful story has turned into a very happy miracle, thanks to Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary.

This is how it began on 1/25, as told by Michelle, one of the original rescuers:

The Pigeons were rudely dumped out of the trunk of a car at the Hanly Road entrance to Dimond Park (3860 Hanly Rd, 94602). Every spring in our park some one or some group comes in and does a ceremonial killing of 5 chickens (usually beheading them and leaving the carcasses in plain view) and we thought maybe they came from this.

We saw a car park in a weird spot and my office staff and I all looked and thought, hmmm, that doesn't look right. Because we were in the middle of some transactions, we did not react as fast as usual and the car drove off.

Shortly after a regular patron ran in and said she peeked in the boxes and saw dead and live chickens. We all ran up there and found 3 bags of fruit and dead chickens with many cracked egg yolks all over them along with a white sheet covered in yolks.

Next to them were 2 boxes of what we thought were chickens that we could see moving and alive. So I packed them in my truck quickly and drove them to Rotary Nature Center, knowing they had the facilities to monitor them if they were in less than perfect shape. We opened up to find the 12 fairly healthy pigeons and were thrilled we saved some of the animals from unneeded suffering.

MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue was contacted to help (you can see my original blog post here) but, as faithful readers know, MickaCoo is always full up! No matter how fast we add foster capacity and develop adopters, there are more homeless pigeons and doves in need of rescue. It's HARD to find wonderful forever homes for birds, no matter how cute and sweet they are. And these were neither. These twelve beat up, pitiful and none-too-friendly king pigeons were at real risk of euthanasia. And, to top it off, I received an e-mail the very same day about 10 pigeons used in lab testing that needed to be rescued. HELP!

Even so, we moved forward as if a miracle was on order. We put out the word that they needed an "angel aviary" and MickaCoo volunteers Shauna and Mike and myself and Rotary Nature Center staff Alexa & Stephanie worked together to coordinate rehab and flock treatment and transport from their various appointments. Their condition steadily improved.

The flock thrived in their temporary home.

The worst off birds got vet and supportive foster care.

Of the twelve birds, eleven recovered enough for adoption. Ray Ray, the sickest and weakest, will need at least a few more weeks in long-term, supportive foster care and potentially surgery to improve his vision. Click here to donate towards Ray Ray's vet care.

And then, just in time, our miracle arrived! Christine Bean of Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary said they would provide a wonderful, safe forever home to the flock of eleven dumped-like-trash king pigeons! This Tuesday, I boxed them up and drove out to Harvest Home in Stockton.

Once there, the king pigeons were welcomed not only by Christine, but by a whole lot of their new aviary-mates, most of whom were taller and more colorful than what the all-white king pigeons were used to.

This is 'Mike the Situation', a rooster who was rescued after seeing his entire flock slaughtered. He struck me as very forgiving despite what he's endured.

The sheltered and predator-proof night roost.

A king checks out one of the duck pools.

The king pigeons share a meal with their new friends.

This is Mellencamp, a rescued 'broiler' chicken, living well despite the fate his breeding intended.

Chagall the billy goat is a very friendly and handsome fellow.

MickaCoo is extremely grateful to Christine and Harvest Home for their help with this very challenging rescue- for saving eleven innocent birds that were dumped like trash and overwhelming our already over-stretched resources. King pigeons are raised and sold as meat birds (as squab, butchered at the tender age of 4 weeks old) and having the support of the farm animal sanctuary community is very meaningful to us on multiple levels. Harvest Home is the first farm sanctuary to partner with MickaCoo and I am encouraged and newly hopeful thanks to their help.

And I'm proud, for the king pigeons, that they have been given the dignity and support of such a wonderful home- sanctuary alongside their fellow farmed animals. Their presence at Harvest Home will help expose many folks who previously didn't know that thousands and thousands of sweet, smart, innocent baby king pigeons are being slaughtered for meat every year, right here in California.