A tiny chick was found clinging to life in the trash pile of an egg farm.
The adorably named Tweety had been left for dead alongside the lifeless bodies of several other chicks at one of India’s largest egg farms.
However, Tweety had someone watching out for her that day: Sally Varma, public outreach senior specialist at Humane World for Animals India.
Varma was the one who found Tweety in her hour of need.
“She was very weak and had been thrown into the waste along with the dead ones,” Varma said. “ But I noticed she was still alive, so I knew I had to give her a second chance. To the egg industry her life was meaningless, but to me she was precious.”
Varma was determined to see Tweety avoid a fate that had befallen so many chicks at the farm both before and since that fateful day.
So she took her home and set to work nursing her back to health. It was a task that required patience and compassion, but one Varma was ready and willing to take up.
As of today, October 10, which also happens to be World Egg Day, Tweety has flourished into a happy and healthy hen.
She’s so much more than that to Varma though. “Most people see hens as food,” she said. “I see Tweety as family.”
Alongside all the usual duties you would expect when it comes to caring for a hen, Varma and Tweety have developed a unique closeness that can be traced back to the day Varma first found her.
“She is my baby girl and she considers me as her mother because I saved her when she was just days old,” Varma said. “She snuggles into my arms and dozes off feeling safe.”
As unusual as it might seem, it’s not entirely uncommon for humans to strike up bonds of this kind with poultry.
In a poll of just over 2,000 U.S. adults who owned and cared for chickens, published as part of a study featured in the journal Animals, researchers found the majority reported having a “personal” relationship with their chickens.
Varma is close to Tweety but considers their relationship not all that different to the one between human and pet. “She has a great personality, she feels joy and shows affection, all the characteristics we more usually recognize in dogs and cats,” she said.
But Tweety also provides Varma with something else. “Every day with her reminds me why I do the work I do, creating a world where animals’ lives matter and their value isn’t reduced to what’s on a dinner plate,” she said.
“It can be easy to forget that within the unfathomably large animal agriculture industry of billions of animals, there are individual lives just as precious as that of my little Tweety.”
Wendy Higgins, director of international media for Humane World for Animals, told Newsweek Tweety’s story should provide pause for thought.
“Tweety’s story beautifully demonstrates how all life, no matter how small, is precious. Her little life could so easily have slipped away on that rubbish pile, but instead she was shown the love and care she needed to thrive,” Higgins said.
“If we all took a more compassionate approach to life, and saw the value in even the smallest of creatures with whom we share this planet, we could create a kinder world for all.”