Martin Hudspeth
The Chicken Rescue Centre
Southwell Farm,
Main Street,
Botcheston,
Leicestershire
LE9 9FF
Tel:- (07990) 675454
Fax:- (01455) 274215
www.chickenrescue.org.uk
E-mail:- [email protected]
18 September 2000
Dear Sir / Madam
I have recently started Britain's first and only chicken rescue centre,
a
centre dedicated to the rescue of homeless chickens (as seen on Pet Rescue)
and rehabilitation of ex-battery hens from battery cages to the free range
system. The hens (which I have to buy at 50p each), can hardly be called
hens, they are all suffering from feather pecking to a large degree , under
weight and scared of everything including the ground and even their own eggs
.
It takes 3 months of very hard work to rehabilitate a hen to the point where
she will lay her first egg, but in that time she has cost the centre about
=A320.00, so the cost of 100 rehabilitating hens is =A32,000.00 which at the
moment can not be covered by the cost of the 150 hens I have at the centre
producing eggs for sale. The sale of eggs at the moment is not covering the
cost of the feed bill for themselves and prior to the move to the field in
Botcheston they were poisoned by diesel for which I can not afford the
antibiotics needed to treat the problem. On top of this the hen house that i
s
in the field is in a bad state of repair (rotten floor and leaking roof)
which in the recent weather is not helping things and is also too small for
the number of birds the centre has.
The Chicken Rescue Centre was set up as a hobby in 1998 by myself (Marti
n
Hudspeth) when I brought 4 battery hens to produce eggs for myself and so
sorry for the state that the hens were in and it escalated from there. in
November 1999 was awarded a Princes Trust grant to run the centre full time
but the centre has been plagued by problem after problem which has sapped th
e
finances given by the Trust i.e. =A3500.00 of electric fencing stolen from a
field I was setting up in Barwell but after a lot of media interest, a
company donated the electric fencing and I was offered a secure field. All
this has caught The Chicken Rescue Centre up in a vicious circle of needing
to invest a lot of finance that it has not got and can not rase at it's
current state due to no facilities at the field for people to come and see
the hens and a lack of money to rehabilitate 100 more hens needed and the
poultry units needed to house them. We are currently trying to get charity
registration. I am trying to rase =A3300,000 to buy a small holding and
transform it into a visitors Centre and a working sanctuary so people can
come and see how the hens live and children from the cites can come and "see
where eggs come from" and possibly see chickens for the first time. Unless I
can expand in this way the first and only Centre in the country will have to
close because I am having to work full time at night just to keep The Chicke
n
Rescue Centre open.
If you would be able to help I am willing to put your logo on all
paperwork and a lot of media coverage, anything else that will help to rase
the finance I need to keep the first and the only centre of it's kind in the
UK can be negotiated.
Please contact me on (07990) 675454 at anytime and please look at
http://www.chickenrescue.org.uk . You are welcome to come and visit the
centre if you want to verify this letter, I am on the main road between Merr
y
Lees and Botcheston (please phone for more specific directions).
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I hope to talk to you
soon.
Yours sincerely
Martin Hudspeth