Sweet Peeps Microsanctuary, Lillian, AL (2026)

09/01/2026

Sofia is finally home! One week ago, I woke up and discovered Ama was sick. Still pretty much in my pajamas, we rushed first to the local vet, and from there made the 4-hour drive to see the specialists at LSU. That night as I was leaving LSU, I got a panicked message from our helper Kyle that Sofia had pr*****ed. I was four hours away and needed to stay with Ama.

So Kyle and their wife rose to the moment and did an amazing job getting the prolapse back in, but by morning she had re-pr*****ed. This time Kyle and our other amazing helper Chris got it back in, and then as soon as the vet opened, while Kyle stayed at the sanctuary to care for the animals, Chris drove Sofia to Mobile to see yet another vet. They discovered she had a giant egg she was struggling to push out, causing the prolapse, and she pr*****ed again before finally laying the egg overnight.

The next morning, they put sutures in, but she laid another egg that night, ripping the sutures out. She received treatment to stop her from laying eggs, which thank God I think is finally kicking in. But they worried she might lay another egg and prolapse again, so every day when I called to check on her, they would say they wanted to keep her another day—until finally today they said she could come home!

It felt like a lifetime. I can only imagine how confusing and scary the whole thing must’ve been for her. She’s sleeping in the living room tonight and will stay inside for a while until I’m sure we are through this. She will also receive reproductive care for the rest of her life to prevent her from laying eggs in the future.

At this point, almost every one of our hens has had life-threatening reproductive health issues. And after this episode, every girl here is going to receive preventative reproductive care going forward.

Besides the horrors of the industrial egg industry, which most people are aware of, even beloved, well-cared-for hens are still at the mercy of bodies that humans have manipulated for decades to lay far more eggs than they were ever intended to produce. And they suffer, and often die, for it.

Sofia’s wild ancestors would’ve laid maybe a dozen eggs a year for the purpose of hatching chicks. Most modern chickens lay hundreds. It takes an enormous, unnatural toll on their bodies.

But thankfully our Sofia is back home where she belongs, healing, and hopefully will never have to lay another egg in her life.

08/29/2026

To everybody who has donated to our fundraiser, thank you so so much! 🙏🏼❤️🐓🐈‍⬛ If you donated through the fundraiser itself, unfortunately, Facebook is not showing me who you are! I feel absolutely sick about not being able to thank you! If you donated, and you see this post, please let me know who you are and please know we’re so deeply grateful for your compassion and your generosity ❤️🙏🏼and I’m so sorry that Facebook is sabotaging us like this 😭

08/25/2026

Ama is gone 💔 They decided to do the
ultrasound first, rather than the CT- because they thought they could learn a lot from the ultrasound with less risk because she didn’t need to be sedated as heavily for the ultrasound. The vet said they saw a lot of strange masses that looked like cancer- and they got biopsy samples from several sites. They had finished the procedure and she was in recovery when she coded- they did CPR but were not able to bring her back 😢😢😢💔💔💔

We are having a necropsy done so we’ll find out soon what really happened.

The best thing I can say is that up until yesterday Ama had never had any health issues. From the moment I picked her up in Warm Springs, GA in January, 2019, where she’d been transported after being rescued from a bankrupt factory farm in Colorado that had turned off its heat in freezing temperatures and stopped feeding the 40,000 birds in their sheds, Ama has had a happy healthy wonderful life.

She was a beloved member of her whole flock family, but in the last couple years, as we’ve lost a couple of the other girls and a couple more have come to live inside because of their own special needs, Ama and Nunu had become incredibly close. They do everything as a pair, from sleeping snuggled up together, to spending their days exploring the yard together or just pressed up side by side staying cool in front of the fan and watching the world go by. Nunu has to be wondering where her sister is. I can’t imagine how much she will miss her. But now she too will come live inside and join the house crew flock family.

Ama would have turned 8 in just a couple months. I was already planning their 8th birthday party. And I’m so sad she will not be here for that. But I’m also so incredibly thankful that she was rescued from that hell hole. That she got to live a beautiful life. That she was loved. And treated with the kindness and dignity and respect all of her kind deserve but so few ever know. That we fought for her because her life mattered.

Rest in eternal peace and love precious Ama. May all love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on🙏🏼🪽❤️

08/25/2026

I don’t even know where to begin. We have had so many medical issues and expenses recently, and we could really use your help!

Today, one of our almost 8 year old Cornish girls, Ama, is at LSU. She didn’t eat breakfast yesterday morning and was having a hard time breathing. We went to our local vet who said she thought it was probably some kind of peritonitis and said we could either euthanize or, she could send us to LSU for surgery. There are about 1 million things to try in between euthanasia and surgery. So we headed straight to LSU. They hospitalized her overnight. And she is having a CT scan this morning. Her belly is filled with fluid, but we don’t know why.

As I was leaving the hospital to find a hotel last night, Kyle, who is at the sanctuary holding the fort down, called to tell me that one of the other chickens, Sofia, had a prolapse. With the help of Kyle’s wife, they were able to get the prolapse back in. But she re-pr*****ed overnight. This morning our other helper, Chris, is driving her to the only vet in the area who will give her an implant so that her body will stop trying to push eggs out, but he will also likely have to sedate her and put sutures in, and they will keep her at least overnight.

We also have another rooster, Ziggy, who
had a swollen foot for a couple of weeks that didn’t go down with anti-inflammatories so we took him to the vet and discovered he has a bone infection which is potentially life-threatening. We did a culture and have him on antibiotics that should be effective for the specific bacteria he has. But we’ve already talked to the specialist at LSU about bringing him back here for more advanced treatments if the antibiotics aren’t enough.

In addition, we’ve been helping vet several cats both local and in Toledo, whose owners don’t have the funds to cover necessary medical expenses.

It’s all been a lot. If you would like to help us cover any of these expenses, we would be so so grateful.

We are committed to giving every animal in our care the best care possible. But unfortunately, while our aspirations to help are unlimited, our resources are not.

Thank you so much for your compassion 🙏🏼❤️‍🩹

07/23/2026

It’s our Precious Becky ❤️🐓🥹

07/22/2026

Today we went to the vet to get Jain some preventative reproductive care. We spent about $500 on her care today. Do you think we’re doing it because she’s nice? Nope. She’s not nice! Because she’s sweet? Nope again. Not a sweet bone in her body! Maybe because she’s so appreciative and grateful? Absolutely not! She’s entitled and condescending! Is it because she’s kind? Ha! She is beyond sassy. I would say she’s downright mean, and I have a couple of scars to prove it. Maybe because she’s so pretty? Well that one is true. She is stunning, obviously, but that’s not why we’re doing it either.

So why are we spending hundreds of dollars on preventative reproductive care? Because she’s a sentient being who doesn’t deserve to suffer. Humans have manipulated her body in so many ways— genetically manipulated to be one of the giants of the meat industry, and also subject to centuries of reproductive manipulations so that she, like all modern hens, lay way more eggs than her body was ever intended by nature to lay— and she doesn’t deserve any of that.

She doesn’t have to be nice. We just make a commitment to everybody who comes here that we’re going to give them the care that they deserve— that we will do everything we can to provide the conditions for them to be healthy, happy, safe, and at ease. If they’re nice, (and really almost all of them are!), I won’t lie, that’s a bonus, but it’s not a precondition for being treated well, for being treated with kindness, for being treated with dignity and respect, for being kept safe.

Jain will be eight in November. I will admit I’m hoping she’ll live long enough that we will find her sweet side. But if not, that’s OK. We’ll just keep serving her as the queen she is. 👑🐓❤️

07/18/2026

We said goodbye to our foster Jeffrey today. Drove him just over the Tennessee line to meet up with his new mom who drove all the way down from Ohio to get him.

At Jeffrey’s original home, he was on the verge of being “culled” which is just an industry euphemism for killing. He was doing what roosters do, trying to protect his hens. A lot of people don’t know what to do with a spicy rooster-and they end up making things worse by responding with aggression. Jeffrey had been kicked and had things thrown at him and he was facing some kind of killing cone.

But thankfully, his people did not really want to kill him and so they agreed to let him go up to the sanctuary in Ohio.

Jeffrey is definitely one of the lucky ones. So many of these backyard roosters don’t make it. They’re either dumped or killed outright. And of course that’s not not even to mention the fate of the overwhelming majority of chickens who we kill by the billion for food.

When I looked into Jeffrey’s eyes, I could see his fear. I could see his uncertainty. He didn’t know if he was safe, or not. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him, and he had no control over his own fate.

No living being should be in that position—solely dependent on the whims of a human being to decide whether they will live or die. To decide whether they will be abused or treated with kindness. Some people think that God gave us Dominion over the animals to do with them as we please. I think that’s utter nonsense. Any God who would create a being capable of fear and pain and then give us the right to torture and kill them is not a God, but a devil.

Jeffrey has as much right to exist on this earth as any one of us does. When I look at his curious, questioning eyes, and his sweet little face, I can’t for the life of me understand how it would be OK to slaughter him any more than it would be OK to slaughter and one of our cats or dogs. I’m so very thankful for all the people who came together to protect this boy.

On my way back home, I made a stop at Slutty Vegan Birmingham where they know more than just how to make good veggie burgers and vegan wings, they know why!

05/18/2026

Thank you Isabelle Cnudde at Clorofil💖💖💖 The book was written primarily for human children, but by all means, please do read it to your avian children as well!🐥

05/15/2026

Friends! My latest children’s book is now available! “The Great Adventures of Blueberry and Marmalade” tells the tale of two feral Island chickens looking for true freedom, safety, and belonging. It’s a story of bravery and friendship, adventure, and the courage of compassion.

It’s designed primarily for middle grade readers but I think will appeal to animal lovers of any age!

You can get a copy directly from the publisher, or it’s currently available on Amazon ( https://a.co/d/09fpFjdv ) and will soon be available through other online retailers.

Much gratitude to .j.art for the wonderful illustrations, to Mariella Travis for designing the book, and to for bringing the book into the world!

It’s a fun, sweet, and engaging story that I hope will water the seeds of compassion in all who read it. May all beings everywhere be happy and free 🙏🏼💖

04/28/2026

Well, I hate to admit it, but I’m beginning to prepare myself for the fact that I don’t think Fernie has too much more time, and I thought I should maybe prepare you too.

She is still enjoying time outside pecking around and finding ripe berries and worms. But now I have to carry her out to her favorite spot that she was running to just a couple weeks ago. It seems dramatically harder for her to get around by the day. She falls a lot- like she falls and sits more than she stands. When she falls, the ground is close and soft and so thankfully, she doesn’t hurt herself, and she is able to get back up, most of the time. But her body just seems to be pretty broken. We’ve done all the tests that we can think to do and the only thing that we find is bad arthritis in her hips. So all there is to do is try to treat that. She’s been getting turmeric and omega-3‘s with her meals as well as anti-inflammatories and pain meds twice a day. We added in a third pain med today. And so maybe this will make a difference. I really hope so.

There are days I think maybe we could just keep going like this for a long time, and then there are days when I worry there is not much more time at all💔 For now, we’re just doing everything that we can to keep her as comfortable as possible and make sure she gets to do all of her favorite things as much as she’s able to. She gets lots of snuggles and supervised time outside, extra blueberries, and we will just do everything we can to make sure that every single day is as good as it can be, for as long as the days in balance are still good.

Fernie is a 6 1/2 year old Cornish-Cross. These are the chickens bred by the meat industry to be killed as 6 to 8 week old babies. We have other Cornishes here who are older and doing much better, so it’s not just that she’s old- but there is no denying that she has made it much longer than the unfathomable majority of her kind. Chickens like Fern are bred to be products. It’s a cruel fiction that our society just accepts as if it were true. But the truth is that Fernie is someone, not something, friend, not food.

Sweet Peeps Microsanctuary

09/01/2026

08/29/2026

08/25/2026

08/25/2026

07/23/2026

07/22/2026

07/18/2026

05/18/2026

05/15/2026

04/28/2026

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