The woman tosses cracked corn, oats and sunflower seeds into a carrying case. The drive is short from her north Minneapolis home to the city’s Animal Care and Control Shelter.
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There, snapshots on the lobby wall serve as a roster of the day’s impounded animals: eight pit bulls, 18 cats, two chickens.
The woman, Mary Britton Clouse, rescues chickens.
Last year, 249 birds wound up at the shelter, up from 119 birds in 2005. More than 115 have come in this year.
Three-quarters are chickens. Many are strays, found in alleys. Others are over-the-hill chicks that parents bought to show their children the miracle of life. Some were fighters, others were destined for ethnic ritual slaughters. Some are seized from people who lack permits or whose neighbors complained.
Britton Clouse, who until 2001 had never held a chicken, says chickens are the “most abused and exploited” animal on the planet.
“Of all the animals out there, they were the ones that needed a friend the most,” said Britton Clouse, the former president of the Animal Rights Coalition.
So she founded Chicken Run Rescue in 2001, believed to be the only chicken adoption organization in the nation.
Britton Clouse, 54, places the chickens as companion animals in homes.
“If you’re expecting a dog, you’ll be disappointed, but they definitely have individual personalities, likes and dislikes, and can be affectionate and follow you around,” said Jodi Hesse, 35, an adopter from western Wisconsin.
Added Lori Kyle, a Chaska, Minn., resident who adopted three roosters: “They follow when you call, jump for grapes, and they’re cute as can be.”
A vegan, Britton Clouse hopes her work helps people make informed decisions “about the flesh on the end of their forks.”
Britton Clouse and her husband, Bert, have lived for 23 years in a century-old house, where they restore books out of their home, spending $3,000 a year of their own money to bankroll Chicken Run Rescue.
The couple’s back yard includes coops, runs, amaranth plants and intriguing stories. Take Gody, for example. The hen was plucked from the jaws of a cat by an elementary school teacher in St. Paul and raised by a science class until she grew too large.
Every night, the couple’s birds line up to go into the basement coop, where their cock-a-doodle-doos will be muffled.
“It’s a beautiful, joyous sound,” Britton Clouse said. “But we keep them inside until 9 a.m. on weekdays and 10 or 11 on weekends so everyone can sleep. We’ve had no complaints. People love the idea that something happy and hopeful is happening in the neighborhood.”
A hen, Juli, is the 222nd chicken Britton Clouse has liberated. After a five-day quarantine in a shower stall at the Clouses’ home, softened with straw and sprinkled with seeds and Romaine lettuce hearts, Juli will be ready for adoption.
Inside, Juli steps out of the carrier and weighs in at less than an ounce. Parasite dust is sprinkled on her wings and she gets a syringe full of medicine, topped with a helping of fresh lettuce and cracked corn.
Another day, another liberated chicken.
– – –
A few good eggs
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Terms of Chicken Run Rescue’s adoption policy are strict: New owners must agree to treat the birds like dogs or cats during their normal 14-year life expectancy. Plus, no fighting, no commercial egg production or breeding — and no chicken pot pies.