For the second time in two months, the West Vancouver SPCA is sheltering a chicken in need of a home — this one deliberately abandoned.
Park maintenance workers found the chicken in a box just outside Capilano River Regional Park’s parking lot near Camp Capilano on Tuesday.
The previous owner was thoughtful enough to poke some holes in the box and leave some chicken feed and water, but that’s still no way to treat an animal, said Dragana Hajdukovic, branch manager of the West Vancouver SPCA.
“I wish that person would have turned to us to take care of a chicken that they could no longer take care of rather than leaving it in the park,” she said. “The chicken is lucky it was found because who knows what would have happened if it was left in the elements.”
Hajdukovic described the chicken as a juvenile – about eight weeks old and comfortable around humans, suggesting it was hatched and raised in someone’s family before being abandoned.
Under SPCA policy, the chicken will stay at the West Vancouver branch — which also has a plethora of cats, dogs, gerbils and birds in need of a home — for four days before it can be adopted out.
SPCA volunteers picked up a stray chicken found pecking around in West Vancouver neighbourhoods last month. That one turned out to be a runaway and was later collected by its coop keepers. Hajdukovic said she doesn’t expect that to happen with this one.
“I would be surprised if they did. We would want to talk to them,” she said. “If anyone cannot … or doesn’t want to take care of their pet any longer, we encourage everybody to reach out to us first. We’re here to help. Please, I would urge people not to abandon their animals outside.”
