Clucky is safe again (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Clucky is safe again

2:35pm Thursday 23rd November 2006 in News

"Cruel, mindless and stupid" - that is Jo Brown's description of who ever pushed a live chicken into a bottle bank.

The chicken, nicknamed Clucky, is being looked after at the Vale Wildlife Centre at Beckford, where Jo works.

The bird, believed to be a rare breed of chicken, was rescued from the bottle bank at Little Beckford by the RSPCA after residents heard her squawking.

They managed to catch her in a collapsible net, but still had a job getting her out through the small hole in the side of the container.

RSPCA inspectors are investigating how she got in there.

The charity's spokeswoman Judith Haw said: "She could have been cut on broken glass, knocked unconscious or killed."

Meanwhile, Jo added: "You don't accidentally throw a chicken into a bottle bank, the holes are really small and they must have had to force her in.

"It probably seemed like a harmless prank at the time, but it was a very stupid one.

"To knowingly put a live animal into a container it can't get out of is unbelievably cruel.

"If no one had heard her she would have starved to death, to say nothing of being hurt by the bottles being thrown in."

Jo said Clucky was hungry, thirsty and stressed when she arrived at the centre on November 19.

Now, after lots of much needed TLC, she is happy and well.

She will be kept at the centre for a week to give her owner chance to claim her, after that Jo has a long list of people eager to give her loving home.

"Clucky's going to be alright," added Jo.