Distressed Chicken at Charles Dickens Primary School

Oh, the poor creature!

The hen screams often on Sunday's and evenings, late into the night. I've often heard her at 1 or 3 am. When I spoke to the school last year, I was told that it was something disturbing or waking the chickens, not that it was a very lonely and distressed hen.
That's terribly cruel.

Recently Saturday and Sunday daytime it screaches.

If the only way to get that poor creature help, is to complain about the noise, then I'm complaining about the noise now!

We should ALL complain about the noise.

SAVE THE HEN


Apathy will get it killed

Thanks all ! I have contacted the editor of the Southwark News as suggested - thank you - and they say they may be interested in the story.

Do Chickens Dream of Electric Foxes?

I'd not wait for the Southwark News to do something, I'd email the head again and say you've spoken to the press and then see what happens. The poor chickie shouldn't be in this situation until there's a slow news day.

Would the best idea not be to actually check whether the chicken actually is in distress before running to the press?

No distressed chicken noise this evening, nor this morning. To my completely amateur eye, those chickens have always appeared to be well cared for and as happy as any chicken I've seen.

The hen has been yelling out for a long time now. It's not every night, but I heard her this weekend. You're lucky if you can't hear anything from your flat, this place is noisy outside.

Really, the centre of London is not a fair or decent place to keep hens.

If the chicken has been "distressed" for "several months", evidenced by "repetitive and ceaseless squawking...more or less continuously", then why hasn't anyone actually gone down to the school and talked to someone?

I'm in no way trying to downplay animal welfare. If there are animals being mistreated, my view is that action needs to be taken quickly.

However, I struggle to believe that the school would let an animal be mistreated, and I wonder whether anyone has actually got all the facts or whether there's some misunderstanding or exaggeration at work.

It's all very well tweeting, calling the press, etc, but isn't this a situation where 5 minutes of face to face contact (or even a phone call to the school office) could have clarified and resolved this months ago?

Is there any update on this animal welfare issue, or was it a storm in an eggcup?
[couldn't resist the pun, but my concern IS genuine]

Thanks Ivanhoe, yes there is an update. After contacting this forum and Southwark News the Head Teacher finally replied to my emails! I was told that the bird had been 'injured' but had now recovered and was to be reintegrated with the other birds. (It was evidently making the distress call because it was separated.) It does seem to be a huge co-incidence that the chicken 'recovered' when the issue was highlighted on this forum. Thankfully the bird does not seem to be making a distress call anymore (and a relief for myself and my neighbours) so hopefully the bird has reintegrated. I still find it a bit strange that following my emails the cessation of chicken distress call was so sudden and so complete - after such a continued history of distress - that I just hope that other measures were not actually taken to shut it up. My only question is why did it take 18 months for the school to do anything about this bird's obvious distress and then only because I and my neighbours cared enough to try to highlight its plight?