A Friend for Franny – or
How I learned about Animal Rights

I never understood what Animal Rights was all about until I visited a live poultry market on Ely Avenue in the Bronx, just 20 minutes from Rye.

Five years ago, someone brought me two little domestic quails that were found strolling along Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Annie, and Franny, as we called them, were adorable and very affectionate to one another. They looked like two tiny brown speckled chickens. After a year, Annie had the misfortune of having an ‘egg stroke’, a common occurrence with these little birds. After the stroke, she was no longer able to stand or eat by herself. For the next several weeks we hand fed her and did ‘everything’ to stabilize her, but her condition worsened. We realized that we could no longer offer her a quality life. To end her suffering as well as Franny’s and our own, we brought her to a vet to be euthanized.

Franny was now alone. For companionship, we tried to put her with some of our orphaned babies. First a little pigeon, then a Canada gosling, then some Peking ducklings and finally even a baby squirrel. Each little friend at first worked out fine but the problem was that each one of them naturally kept growing and eventually would get too big for her to play with safely! She needed another Annie!

Someone told me that I could buy her a little quail companion at a live poultry market in the Bronx. I had never been to one nor even knew that they existed. I knew it would probably not be much fun so I asked a friend to come with me for support.

That hot summer day we arrived at the market at 2pm. Neither one of us was prepared for the next fifteen minutes of shocking horror! It was a stuffy warehouse, with no windows for air or sunlight. We saw stacks and stacks of wired cages packed tightly with hens, roosters, rabbits, ducks, guineas, white pigeons, ring neck pheasants and other wild game birds, all cramped together on top of each other. The normally white Peking ducks were in two cages on the bottom of everything. They looked like they had not bathed in weeks, and were filthy. The poor chickens looked sickly and most were missing half of their feathers. The smell was horrendous and the sounds of their cries were haunting.

A young worker picked up one of the hens by her feet and plopped her on a hanging scale. She was pale, pathetically weak and barely alive. A man and woman watched as they discussed whether she was enough to feed a family of four. The discussion seemed to last forever as the poor helpless bird lay on her chest with her feet tied. I will never forget the look on her face lying on that cold metal scale. There was a combination of terror and sadness in her eyes. Being stripped of all her dignity was what bothered me most.

What could I do? Thoughts raced through my head. I wanted them all out of there; each and every one! How could I pick just a few and leave the others? I knew at that moment, that something had to be done, but right now, I needed to complete my mission of getting a friend for Franny! Later, I would have the answer…………

As soon as the hen was taken off the scale, the young worker who did not look a day older than sixteen, grabbed a terrified little bird from a fully packed cage of about thirty quails. I paid him two dollars and we left.

On the way home, all I could think of was how to shut that place down! There was a deep pain in my heart. After 10 years of raising rescued baby chicks and ducks, I knew them well.

The chickens would love to run around the yard, scratch the dirt for insects and mold their bodies into the warm earth with an outstretched wing to comfortably soak up the sun. I loved watching the ducks swim and splash in the pond and then preen themselves. Ducks, like all birds, love to be clean !

As soon as I arrived home, I immediately contacted the Animal Legal Defense Fund for help on what to do. To my total surprise, they said that nothing could be done, because farm animals are considered ‘food’ and have no legal protection. This was my first realization and true understanding of what it meant not to have any rights.

That summer, I went to the National Animal Rights Conference in Washington DC. I saw undercover videos, networked with activists and learned much of the unspeakable truths about how our country allows animal exploitation, laboratory testing and factory farming. Most animals are deprived of true legal protection and are defenseless against cruelty, neglect and abuse. It has been scientifically proven that they too, are sentient beings and have emotions and can feel pain just as we do.

I had to do something! First, I stopped eating them, then founded Animal Nation and vowed to spend the rest of my life sharing with others, what the animals had taught me. As a wildlife rehabilitator, I had the honor of knowing and loving so many species. Familiarity breeds love…..

Unfortunately, most people do not know and are afraid to know the reality of how we treat our fellow animals. Because we are compassionate beings, facing the truth seems too painful to bare. No, it’s not easy, but what is our choice? Do we turn our backs on those that we love because it hurts? Or do we join together, bringing hope, strength and support for one another to restore dignity to the Earth and all its inhabitants. I believe that true peace comes only when we pride ourselves in doing what we believe is right.

If you are interested in learning more about the Animal Rights movement, our website: www. animalnation.org will refer you to several informative links.