A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

Dora Saved Herself

From DxE Direct Action Everywhere
December 2022

Dora must have been holding onto some feeling like hope, because as one of these investigators, whose name is Alicia, passed by her open cage, Dora jumped onto Alicia’s backpack – and stayed. 

Please imagine this for a moment: For your whole life, you have been confined in miserable, filthy conditions, kept alive only because your body can be used to make a product that’ll be taken from you and sold. Imagine your sorrow and fear – but also: Imagine your hope. Would you think, There must be something other than this! Would you look for a way out? And if you saw one, would you leap at the opportunity?

Well, that’s exactly what Dora did. She was trapped in a terrible place – a loud, smelly, crowded place where no one checked on whether she was healthy or comfortable or happy. The humans there only checked on whether she was laying an egg every day, so they could take it, and when she stopped laying an egg every day, they would kill her.

Dora had probably never been treated with kindness by a human, yet she must have sensed something different when some investigators with Direct Action Everywhere came into the barn where she was imprisoned. She must have been holding onto some feeling like hope, because as one of these investigators, whose name is Alicia, passed by her open cage, Dora jumped onto Alicia’s backpack – and stayed!

The investigators weren’t there to take any animals away. They had been alerted to the terrible conditions on this factory farm and were there to document the animals’ suffering, in the hope that authorities would look into the cruelty occurring there and take action.

“She wanted to stay right there on my back,” recalls Alicia. “I’ve been in dozens of chicken farms, and no one has ever attached themselves to me like Dora did. She did the whole investigation with us, and when we left, she decided to come with us, too.”

Dora’s courage in rescuing herself changed her life: Now she lives on a sanctuary, where she is loved and provided with everything she needs to be the healthiest, happiest little hen she can be – and despite her traumatic start in life, she continues to show both trust and curiosity about the world. Dora reminds us that animals are agents in their own liberation.

They are not voiceless or passive, and we are not their saviors. We are their allies.

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