Better Person Than Any Of Us Fashions Tiny Wheelchair For Disabled Chicken
This holiday season, let us extend our charity beyond humans, beyond mammals. Let us open our hearts to the plight of disabled chickens; let us be vessels of avian compassion; let us use our hands to build them teeny tiny chicken wheelchairs.
Tuesday (that's her name) is a chicken that was born with a slipped tendon in her leg; while other chickens are able to strut around like the cock of the walk from birth, Tuesday hobbles about like a feather-coated Tiny Tim. Her original owners had planned to euthanize her, but a family in Green Bay, Wisconsin, decided Tuesday deserved a chance to live. Unfortunately, Tuesday was aggressive toward their other chickens and couldn't be kept by them, either.
From there, Tuesday was shipped off to the Heartland Farm Sanctuary in Verona, Wisconsin, where a vet said the chicken would be a good candidate for a wheelchair. With the price of chicken wheelchairs being in the hundreds of dollars, the nonprofit decided to make their own out of PVC pipe and binder clips. Tuesday's good leg is covered with a baby sock, which helps provide additional traction as she pushes herself along. She is also taking anti-inflammatory medication to manage pain.
"She's this role model for a chicken that is differently-abled but receives absolute love, care and attention and is able to thrive even though she may not look like everyone else. So it's a lesson in compassion and it is a lesson in resilience," said Heartland Farm Sanctuary executive director Jen Korz to Channel 3000, a Wisconsin CBS affiliate. Tuesday declined to give an official statement to reporters, because she's a chicken.