It all started with my teddy bear

BHWT volunteer, Louise Cobham, shares with us how she escaped the City and found a piece of heaven helping hens

volunteer view

As a child, I was always into animals; I was a teddy bear girl I didn’t do dolls. At age 10 I became vegetarian because I realised eating meat meant eating animals and I couldn’t bear the thought of eating my teddy bears!

I grew up in Southend-on-sea and commuted to the City, working in banking and finance; always harbouring a desire to move to the countryside.

A video about the egg industry opened my eyes to the reality of intensive farming and I didn’t want to be a part of that. My desire to move to the countryside grew, but my skills from finance were not transferable so I volunteered at a local vet practice to develop hands-on animal experience.

Eventually I became a trainee vet nurse equipping me with skills to facilitate a move, despite a huge salary drop. I got a job at a Vet Referral Centre in Somerset, and we began our life in the country, and a steep learning curve!

Vet Referral Centres take on procedures that first opinion vets cannot undertake with the vets being specialists in their field handling soft tissue, oncology, neurology and orthopaedic work.

I work as a theatre and surgery vet nurse and one of my functions is controlling the anaesthesia.

Procedures range from fracture repairs, thoracotomies to lump removal; it’s enjoyable work and it’s good knowing I’ve played a part in improving the quality of life of someone’s beloved pet, or even saved a life.

Life in the country has also meant we can have animals... and it started with a little rescue dog.

I remember explaining to a charity that rehomed Romanian dogs that I was looking for a small female; the next thing I heard was “ let out kennel 10!” and there was a little black hairy dog; I called her Allie and she came home with me!

The next addition just had to be chickens. Someone mentioned the British Hen Welfare Trust and I’d always wanted to save ex-caged hens. I got my first flock in September 2015 from BHWT Farrington Gurney; the very next day there was a sharp drop in temperature and I found ‘Billy,’ one of my new hens, lying on her side. Billy had the fewest feathers and was not at all robust so I scooped her up and took her to my neighbour where I could see a cosy fire was burning. I put Billy by the warm fire, fed her fluids and miraculously she was on her feet within the hour – what Billy didn’t know was whilst she was warming herself, the neighbour was making chicken pie!

Now I’d completely got the hen-keeping bug and wanted to do more to help these special hens, so when I saw a sign advertising for BHWT volunteers I applied and have now been volunteering for five happy years!

On a rehoming/adoption day, the first task is to unload the hens in crates once they arrive. Each crate contains 12 hens and there’s generally 35 crates, so it’s heavy work, but the team works efficiently and quietly to reduce any stress for the hens.

Once unloaded we leave them to settle with food and water and check them over to make sure they’re all fit and healthy enough to be adopted. Then the dirty crates are cleaned and disinfected which generally takes a couple of hours, fun in the sun, not so much fun in the winter!

Soon enough the adopters start to arrive and are checked-in while volunteers catch the hens and put them into the adopter’s carriers.

You soon learn if a hen is too poorly to be adopted, if her nails need clipping or if the carrier is too small or not sturdy enough to take the hens home. All tasks are dealt with calmly and swiftly to keep things moving and after a few hours you’ve likely handled 400 hens and spoken to many lovely people.

I’m now living my dream and can’t explain how good it feels to know I’ve made a difference by helping animals live a better life.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a BHWT volunteer, then please visitourwebsiteatbhwt.org.uk/volunteer