A chick named Louise
At the farm, people are often confused why we haven’t changed Louise’s name to a boy’s name, for example Lou? And after our press release on Louise in late January, we started fielding many comments that were upset over his girl’s name.
Hence the reason for this blog post:
The reason Louise is alive today is that as a one day old chick he was mistakenly sexed as a hen. On the assembly lines of chick breeders, the baby chicks move along a conveyor belt and are quickly sexed. The boys are grabbed and sent into the grinder shoot. The girl chicks continue to move along and are boxed up to fulfil orders from farmers.
A local farmer ordered 50 chicks and was sent 52. It soon became apparent that the extra two chicks in the order, were to make up for two of them that had deformed legs and feed. At two weeks old, the farmer threatened to kill the two chicks rather than treat them. SALI’s Farm was called to see if we would take them. We said yes, named the pair Thelma and Louise and started our journey of learning how to care for chickens and looking for solutions for leg deformities.
Louise deserves to keep his name and share his remarkable story of survival despite all the odds against him. As Louise has become a favourite with the children who come to the farm, I have realized that his name also helps at-risk children. The children learn that an animal and person deserves to be loved no matter your name or gender. And despite any disabilities or trauma you have faced, there is hope through love and kindness.
Louise has also become a defacto advocate for his mistreated and unwanted rooster peeps.
That’s a pretty big impact for a rooster named Louise
