When a tornado hit Buckeye Egg Farm in Croton, Ohio on September 20th, over one million hens trapped in wire cages could not escape. Thousands of these hens have been rescued and continue to be rescued by farmed animal sanctuaries and volunteer activists across the country.

The Buckeye Egg Farm disaster struck just after United Poultry Concerns held the First Annual Forum in the United States on the Role Of Farmed Animal Sanctuaries in Promoting Animal Rights and Vegetarianism in Norfolk and Machipongo, Virginia, September 16th and 17th. When the disaster struck 3 days later, activist attendees and speakers from New York to California showed the power and commitment of the newest animal rights force in the U.S.: Farmed Animal Sanctuaries.

The majority of the Buckeye hens slowly starved to death in crushed, twisted metal among their dying and dead cagemates. Hundreds of thousands of the birds were dumped alive into trucks filled with carbon dioxide gas where they slowly suffocated.

At this writing (early October), the horror is still going on and efforts are in full swing to transport thousands of hens to loving homes around the country. Our next issue of PoultryPress will provide a fuller story of the rescue and of the rescuers, including pictures of the blessed hearts who made it to United Poultry Concerns' sanctuary in Machipongo.

We take this moment to acknowledge the heroic rescues conducted by Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm in Hunker, PA and Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY, and to thank Ritchie Laymon of POET in Columbus, Ohio for all of her work, including hen rescue and media focus, throughout this tragedy. We urge everyone who has not yet done so, now is the time to please, Please, PLEASE remove eggs and egg products from your shopping list.