United Poultry Concerns is pleased to announce the debut of the eagerly-awaited exhibit “Un‑Cooped” on May 11, 2013. The exhibit features a wealth of historical and contemporary documents about chicken-human relationships and about chickens themselves.

Gathered together in this permanent digital collection are photographs, illustrations, paintings, essays, interviews, videos, and campaign materials capturing the myriad ways in which chickens have been perceived and treated by humans, how they have suffered and died and recovered and rejoiced and been loved, cherished, honored, tortured, murdered, maligned and advocated for.

United Poultry Concerns is an underwriter of Un-Cooped and a contributor in the form of essays, an interview, images, and donated artifacts to the NMAS Permanent Collection. Un-Cooped debuted in May to coincide with United Poultry Concerns’ International Respect for Chickens Day May 4 / Month of May celebration of chickens.

Announcing the Grand Opening of Un-Cooped, Museum Founder & Executive Director, Carolyn Marino Mullin, stated, “Chickens are among the most abused and under-appreciated species in the world. We think it is important to show people the ways we as a culture view and treat chickens and to introduce them to chickens as individuals with their own wants, needs and interests.”

Un-Cooped includes “dozens of museum artifacts from the museum’s collection, including postcards, advertisements, industry implements, and materials from chicken protection campaigns. The ‘chicken portrait gallery’ section will invite visitors to ‘meet’ 150 chickens as individuals through the words and lenses of their caretakers.”

Without further ado, let’s open the museum door and enter the world of
“Un-Cooped: Deconstructing the Domesticated Chicken.”

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Un-cooped is a project of the National Museum of Animals & Society, the first museum exclusively dedicated to enriching the lives of all animals – human and nonhuman – through exploration of our shared experience.