Are Chickens Sentient Beings?
– On Being a Mother Hen

Mother hen foraging with her brood, courtesy of Vegan India

Vegan India! is a blog that publishes essays, interviews, and product reviews related to a vegan lifestyle. The Vegan India! canvas is huge and aspires to encapsulate the various constructive streams of thought in the global movement to free animals of their pain and suffering, and strive for justice. See Vegan India. Today, UPC is pleased to share this post, featuring an article by Karen Davis, PhD, about the Mother Hen. Vegan India introduces the article:

“Mother hen” is an expression used to describe anyone displaying over protectiveness and worry about their children. Rightly so, the term originates from the nature of a mother hen, who has been observed to have profound motherly instincts. Yet many ask – are chickens sentient beings? In this post, we most gratefully publish an essay on the Mother Hen by an animal advocate who has been vegan for several decades, having spent years in close proximity with chickens, rescuing them, knowing them, talking to them, and generating volumes of precious information about them.