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potluck line i worked the chicken yard as usual and got to talk to some friends who came by to say hello one of the roosters russell is approaching senior status and hasn t been getting along with the other two roosters in his area so we d been rotating them in and out so that they d all have outside time but without conflict he was on indoor time at that point but i thought he might be okay with being held for a little while sure enough he was content to be held and i was able to let quite a few people pet him one of my friends was there with her three kids and one of the kids is named russell they were pretty tickled to meet each other someone nearby asked me about the feet of chickens and here s where it was really handy to have dinosaur mad little boys around they were able to explain the feet of chickens much better than i would have and everyone was charmed a few minutes before terry starts her talk those of us working the chicken area do our best to encourage the turkeys to go up front and center this is generally accomlished with bribes this year we brought the tables that we prepared for the turkeys and chickens into the chicken yard before terry s talk so they d stick around of course there was the somewhat typical and comical bird drama with the guineas chasing everyone away from the food and then three or four of us doing our best to herd the guineas inside so everyone else would have a chance to eat hugo the challenging turkey even had his chance to come out and be admired and for a few minutes he and victor were even coexisting peacefully while hugo was entranced by the treats on the tables that only lasted a few minutes and then carole had to bring hugo back inside where he had his own table that he shared with the bunnies someday i am sure hugo will calm down a bit for now we rotate them to avoid conflict the feast for the turkeys and chickens hugo is eating at the table and victor is displaying at the edge of the picture after terry s talk we were mobbed again with people wanting to meet the chickens i went up to the house to get harrison bringing him down to the chicken yard was a very slow process because i had to stop every few feet for more people to meet and pet him he was his usual wonderful self during the event capturing hearts left and right there was one little girl who asked to hold him every few minutes she was very good about giving him up as soon as someone else wanted to hold him i just had to keep an eye on her because she d wander off with him she wasn t the only one who did that it was kind of funny though it freaked me out at the time the new silkie hen audrey who is still sporting yellow and green paint from being spraypainted before she was rescued did really well she s a sweetheart but she s only been at the sanctuary a couple of weeks and no one really knew how she d do she was unphased by the attention she prefers to perch on people s arms rather than being held but she was very happy to let everyone pet her one of the best things about having a rooster like harrison who falls asleep in people s arms and complains if he is on the ground because he wants to be held is that so many people just never imagined that roosters could be so sweet many have never held a chicken before or even imagined it many have never touched a bird of any kind you can see the impact on them as they get to touch and hold harrison or one of the other chickens who doesn t mind being held and then invariably there are questions about whether all chickens like to be held and we can point to all the hens and roosters running about in the yard doing their chicken things and absolutely not wanting to be picked up i think it is important for people to see that and to understand that it is really up to the chickens themselves and that they have their own distinct personalities and preferences our primary focus is on the animals their safety well being and happiness but for those who do like being held or don t mind it in limited doses we take advantage of that no one can do outreach like the animals themselves can and that outreach is critical most animals aren t lucky enough to be rescued by a sanctuary and the best way to help them is to reach people s hearts and thus minds and encourage them to avoid participating in animal exploitation there are a lot of myths out there about chickens that they are dumb is one of the dumbest chickens have cognition at the level of primates they have many different calls and they distinguish in their warning calls the size and general type land versus air of predator i had several questions from people who were surprised to see that there were multiple roosters in the yard together coexisting mostly peacefully which exposed another myth i was also able to point out to some visitors when julius was calling his girls over to show them the great food he d found the entire tableful of food i showed them that he was picking up food and dropping it to make sure his girls saw it of course they were chowing down and were pretty much ignoring him but he was doing his best to be a gentleman anyway julius gretchen and amber i shocked one person by explaining to them that chickens are tropical birds that they are native to the jungles of asia their jaw dropped i m not sure what people think about or if they ever do think about the fact that chickens are native wild birds somewhere i think that many people don t think beyond kfc or the packages they see of bird parts in the supermarket or maybe even the footage from the farms and slaughterhouses the graphic footage exposes cruelty but it doesn t do anything to confront the wrong headed idea that chickens are just automatons that they are just generic flesh and blood machines that way of thinking gets embedded in people s minds without them even realizing it and until or unless that thinking is challenged they ll continue to think that what what they see in the undercover footage or what they see in the stores is all that chickens are but if you take the time to watch the chickens you ll see so much wild bird behavior in them you ll see them keeping an eye out for arial predators they will track airplanes flying in the sky perch in trees the girls rescued from a fighting cock breeding ring especially hunt for bugs and seeds in the grass go through courting rituals dust bathe sun bathe and negotiate an ever changing social structure it took me a while of coming to the sanctuary to really see these birds for the amazing creatures that they are but of all the animals at the sanctuary they are the most fascinating i can watch them for hours and be captivated the whole time as has become pretty common there were people from a couple news sources there one photographer was a woman from the washington post and i recognized her from previous years her photos are online and really tell a wonderful story about the day the associated article on the other hand was pretty stupid and borderline malicious so don t read it unless you are in the mood to be angry wash post photographer meeting alina at 3pm people gathered up the pumpkins that had decorated the tables and some of the bigger ones on the ground and headed to the pig yard to feed the pigs some pumpkins everyone loves this and apparently people were standing in line to get to the fence to throw their pumpkins there were so many pumpkins thrown into the pig yard that hours later after the event was over and the sun had set and all the tables and chairs had been collected and hauled onto the trailer the pigs were still out there munching on pumpkins of course the event is always fun on a personal level too the energy of a 900 person vegan potluck is pretty intense and i have friends who come from various places harrisonburg philly baltimore who i don t get to see very often plus all the local people who i don t see very often so it ends up feeling like a reunion of sorts i was more neglectful of taking during event pictures than normal so i don t have much to show in pictures for what was a really fantastic day but i felt like it was one of the best thanksgiving events we ve had everything seemed to go so smoothly from the animal chores to covering the tables to the event itself and everyone who stopped by the chicken yard seemed to be cheerful and relaxed even the little kids who sometimes get upset when they have to give a chicken they re holding to the next person waiting or who have to wait while we find a little chicken who is ameniable to being held were really calm and understanding about sharing and waiting i think i recognized most of the kids from previous events maybe it was just a sign of them being experienced with how things go in the chicken yard as always after events i vow to take more pictures next time i m so glad that the washington post photographer was there and that such great pictures got into their online gallery so many of her pictures are of moments i kicked myself for not getting after the event was over sunset at the sanctuary poplar spring poplar spring animal sanctuary thanksgiving with the turkeys poplar spring animal sanctuary open house 2012 2 comments posted by deb on october 9 2012 my view of the pig barn across the duck pond as i left after the open house i think that all of us involved in the sanctuary s open house spent last week anxiously watching the weather reports for sunday it seemed that every day the forecast was more grim colder wetter and all around worse for an outdoor no rain date event that is also the biggest fundraiser of the year cold front moving in bringing clouds by the time saturday came gorgeous warm blue skies and sunny at least part of the time it was clear that sunday was going to be 25 degrees colder and that there was no chance of a dry day terry and dave had rented an extra tent to cover where the speaker and audience would be and for the silent auction tables that are usually just outside the silent auction tent extra tent silent auction tent off to the left we only pulled out about half the usual number of chairs and we had a good crew to help with the set up after chores on saturday so that wasn t as painful as it usually is after set up i headed into dc to pick up a few hundred pounds of cake from sticky fingers cake is heavier than you d think 4 5 sheets fits just fine in my little truck we still had hope that there wouldn t be rain during the actual event or that any rain would be more of a drizzle than a downpour and that s exactly what we got it was cold and it rained in the morning while we did chores but a couple hours before the event started the rain dried up and it stayed dry until after the event when we were cleaning up charlotte in the early morning drizzle the sanctuary has been lucky for many years and though this year s weather wasn t perfect it certainly could have been much much worse initial attendence estimates are that about half the normal number of people came terry had expected worse so even this was somewhat positive news i haven t heard even a rough guestimate on how much was raised the silent auction tent was hopping at the start of the event the speaker this year was karen davis of upc i was down at chickens so i didn t even see her let alone hear her talk but from what i heard from visitors to the chicken yard her talk was really good maybe someday we ll start getting good video of the talks so that we can all enjoy them afterward we brought harrision down from the playhouse to the chicken yard again and as usual he had a great time he was basically held and snuggled for four solid hours which is his very favorite thing it was great to give people the opportunity to hold him especially the people who were really uncertain whether they wanted to hold a chicken they d be a bit nervous sometimes they d ask if he bites i would always assure them that he was just going to fall asleep as soon as he was in their arms and as soon as they held him they fell in love and then i d tell them about the chickendales calendar in the gift shop harrison sleeping in a little girl s arms at one point one of the young volunteers max came up to me asking if i could try to find someone who didn t mind being held there were people who really wanted to hold a chicken and the usual suspects aside from harrision were not interested in being held right then i put him in charge of supervising harrison and went looking like max i kept striking out until i thought of the japanese silky boys jethro and horatio they enjoy being held and while they don t usually like being picked up it was late enough in the day that they were starting to head toward their stall in the barn i got horatio into the barn and then was able to grab him i d have felt bad about tricking him except that i knew he would enjoy being held for a while liquin and horatio he s a sweetheart his eyes were half closed as she held him people tend to love the silkies they look so different so distinct and it fascinates people is this his comb he looks fluffy instead of feathered he required a bit more care when transferring him to different people because his tendency is to be a little restless compared to harrison but many people got a chance to hold him and many more pet him as i held him i got some good questions people wanting to know how you tell a rooster from a hen and about rooster courtship rituals we had a fairly steady crowd sometime there was a line to hold harrison other times there were only a few people down at chickens but i don t think there was ever a time when there were no visitors at all shannon aka veganburnout snuggling harrison with her husband smiling at them both after the event was the reverse of the day before folding up the chairs and tables hauling the tables to the trailer on the truck and then to the barn and into the little storage area putting the chairs into their boxes and loading them onto the truck trailer and then there was the eating of leftover food and the half sheet of cake that gets reserved for the volunteers terry knows how to motivate vegans i donated a few things to the silent auction some canvases but i d also had some glass photo cutting boards made and some photo iphone covers and those seemed to be popular as well i d ordered them as an experiment curious what the quality would be like good enough i guess a friend has donated her expired canvas on demand groupons to me and i ll be using those to print more canvases to be used in future fundraisers for the sanctuary there are rumors that we might do another silent auction at the thanksgiving with the turkeys event but otherwise they ll be in the silent auction at next year s open house thanks ida the calendars were apparently a pretty big hit also this is the first time in several years that i ve had them ready in time for the open house and it sounds like that was a good thing october seems early for people to be thinking of the next year s calendar but maybe i...