January 2022, Czech Republic
received anonymously via email:
“At the end of this year, around midnight, we are inspecting the selected object with a group. We see a car inside the compound, we don’t mind, we go in, we go get them. We get the radios ready and test the signal with the patrol.
Last check, we go in. We open the lobby and slowly slip behind the door, close it behind us and look around, it’s dark everywhere. We turn on the lights, see rows of cages full of small hens, still chicks, just a few weeks old.
They are disturbed by our presence, and the cries of the trapped animals line the inside, along with clouds of dust swirling all around the hall.
All the cages are completely full and have several floors, with hundreds of animals in them.
We approach one of the cages, I open it and reach for the first chicken. Everything is happening so fast. Then the second, the third. I reach for the next one, thinking that I must not let it go at any cost. Fourth, fifth… I don’t choose, I just reach for the next one.
I hold the tenth and put it in the box. That’s the last one, we can’t take any more.
We close the cage and quietly walk out of the hall. We go to the fence and pass the box with the ten hens over it, they are safe now.
We climb out over the fence and turn to see the lights of the illuminated halls in the midst of the black darkness. I think of the ones left behind, so sorry.”
