The Pacific Northwest is home to many unsolved mysteries: some true crime, some myth.
This week, the Onalaska Farm Sanctuary played a heroic role in a new indescribable, yet definitely true mystery.
It came from Pawboost, a website used to locate lost and found pets. Posted on Sunday, Dec. 26, it showed an entire flock of white chickens struggling to stay warm in below-freezing temperatures outside the Merritt Manor apartment complex in Olympia.
There were over 40 of them. Perched on trees and cuddling with one another, the fully-female flock was discovered by a resident of the complex in a ditch in the back of the parking lot.
“It's bizarre, like when you really start looking at it, it's a really bizarre situation because they're in perfect health. They don't have any lice, or mites or upper respiratory issues like you would see in production farm animals,” said Onalaska Farm Sanctuary owner Jessica York. “But they're also banded, they have bands on their legs. So they're also not backyard chickens either, because most backyard chickens people don't put bands on.”
After seeing the Pawboost, residents of the complex and others came to the rescue. A friend of York’s, who first saw the post, drove all the way from Onalaska on one of the coldest days of the year to help out. The hens were distributed between different helpers with chicken experience, and all made it out of the cold relatively unscathed.
Seventeen hens came back to the Onalaska Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit that takes care of farm animals that lived in tough situations or are no longer desired, such as blind ducks and formerly ill turkeys.
York said she’s not a chicken expert, but has mentors for each of the species the sanctuary keeps. The white hens were an unfamiliar breed to her, so she reached out to other chicken farmers she knew. And she wasn’t the only one who was stumped.
Eventually, through a grapevine of other fowl farmers, it was discovered the hens are a rare, valuable breed: French Bresse chickens.
Like champagne, the Bresse chicken may only be produced from a legally-defined area of the former “Bresse” province in Eastern France. In a 2017 CNN article, Bresse chickens were defined as the most expensive chickens in the world. They are characterized by pristine white feathers and slate blue legs.
In America, York said, the birds sell at around $14 per pound. At around 6 pounds per chicken, that’s $86 a bird.
“In France, where they actually come from, they sell for $200 a bird. So these are some really expensive chickens,” York said. “That was like $3,000 worth of birds in a ditch. It doesn't make any sense.”
Why were they there? The question may remain unanswered. It likely wasn’t a “Chicken Run” situation. They were in urban Olympia, just a few blocks away from Providence St. Peter Hospital.
They likely didn’t fall off the back of a truck either. They were in the back of a parking lot away from any major road.
“The mystery is thick,” York said.
Luckily, what will happen to them next is easier to answer. One commenter on the Pawboost took “about 40” of them, and said they are “warm and safe.”
The 17 that went to the Onalaska Farm Sanctuary are also safe and happy. York will soon begin the process of rehoming them, she said, because the sanctuary doesn’t keep chickens.
York and her husband, Kyle, are vegans who see all animals as deserving of love and compassion. Finding a home for the chickens that shares those values is a priority for her. That process is tricky with farm animals, though, as “people do eat them.”
Especially with the high value of the hens, York will have potential new owners undergo a strict vetting process to ensure they aren’t just going to sell or eat the chickens. Though she and her husband do not eat eggs, it’s OK if the new owners do, as long as they’ve promised to take “really, really good care of their birds,” she said.
“All the way to their old age, regardless of what they produce or don't produce,” York said. “I just want to find homes that understand that when you get an animal, it means that you're responsible for the entirety of their life.”
In the two years of owning Onalaska Farm Sanctuary, York has seen many unusual cases. One sanctuary resident is a Patagonian Mara, an exotic rodent who used to be in a petting zoo.
Of all the animals she’s taken care of, turkeys have surprised her the most.
“I never realized that turkeys could be so loving. We have one of our turkeys that will walk right up to you and sit down at your feet and he starts purring,” she said. “My grandfather worked on a turkey farm and always told me how mean and how nasty the turkeys can be, and I'm just having this completely different experience.”
Originally from Upstate New York, she moved to Washington to be closer to her mother in Seattle. Her husband, who served in the Coast Guard for 26 years, happily joined her when she decided to settle in peaceful Onalaska.
They are active on Facebook and Instagram, which is how they find homes for the pets they do adopt out.
“I can't wait to see what it looks like in five years. I feel like every year it just keeps getting better,” York said.
To learn more about the sanctuary or to see its posts about the saga of the chickens, visit Onalaska Farm Sanctuary on Facebook. The sanctuary is also seeking help raising funds to provide for the flock. Donations can be made on PayPal or Zelle to onalaskafarmsanctuary@gmail.com, or on Venmo to @onalaskafarmsanctuary.
