How a chicken changed our lives…

In 2012 we rescued four commercial hens and drove them back to their new home in our Mum and Dad’s back garden. Little did we know that this was the start of a journey that would lead us both to become vegans.

At first we were drawn to chickens as cute pets that would deliver delicious, fresh eggs to our garden everyday. We decided rather than buying chicks or hens at the point of lay, to choose to rehome ex-commercial hens following a series of high profile campaigns on intensive animal farming methods. We got in touch with the British Hen Welfare Trust who save around 600,000 hens each year and soon enough Ivy, Ruby, Gwen and Rosie were settling into their new home.

What we hadn’t realised is that we weren’t just saving four little chickens from an indoor caged life, we were rescuing them from death.

It turns out all commercial laying hens (free range and indoor reared) are killed when they are only one or two years old. Their egg production rate begins to drop off at this age and because commercial hens are so over-bred for egg production, they begin to develop serious health problems from the strain on their bodies to lay an egg every single day. This means they are deemed no longer to be commercially viable. Once their life has no commercial value, it seems their life is no longer valid, so they are sent to the slaughter house.

Shocking, isn’t it! Once we began to read further into animal farming methods we knew we could not go back to eating animals or animal products from intensive farming systems. (Read more about Amy’s decisions to go vegan here.)

The decision to make an environmental and political statement through the food we consume has led us to consider every single purchase and action we take and its consequence for other people and the environment.

Our quest for healthier, happier and, environmentally and socially conscious lives was then pushed that one step further early in 2014. Veronica was diagnosed with a food intolerance following six years of digestive problems and was advised to cut out a whole range of foods including refined sugar.

Since eliminating all processed food from her diet she has transformed her eating habits. The sense of well-being and high energy levels from enjoying a clean diet has meant there is no returning to processed foods and that sugar addiction.

Over the last two years our lives have been changed forever. Rehoming our amazing rescue hens opened our eyes to seeing farm animals as individual beings in their own right. The ethical lifestyle we began to adopt has led us to question so many things in our lives and the world around us. For us there is no turning back to our old ways. We want to inspire others to actively choose their lifestyle habits, not just accept the norm.

So here is our blog. A place where we can share our thoughts, and hear yours, on making better choices everyday, for us, our wildlife and our planet.