Hen Harbor

Hen Harbor 501(c)(3) non-profit org focusing on rescue/rehab of unwanted/abused chickens throughout California.

Hen Harbor is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue and rehoming of unwanted hens and roosters.

13/12/2025

California likes to tout itself as a progressive state that protects the most vulnerable. Meanwhile, its 9 million "spent" egg farm hens anually are killed in the most horrible ways imaginable because lawmakers, noting the difficulty of disposing of mass numbers of them, made sure to exempt them from all animal care regulations.

Egg farms commonly employ ventilation shut down (killing by suffocation), manual neck snapping, gassing, maceration, and live burial in mass pits. The "lucky" ones are shoved into crates and shipped to dens of doom like this slaughterhouse, where no killing method is deemed too cruel.

Why buy chicks? If you're in Calif., visit ChickenAdoption.com to learn how to adopt some egg industry survivors!

10/12/2025

When a park employee called me to pick up the 867th abandoned rooster of the year, I had such high hopes for him. “So fancy! So unique!” I thought. “Someone will totally adopt him!”

Roocifer quickly put that notion to rest.

No offense,Rooce, but I can kinda see why someone dumped ya 😆😥💔

07/12/2025

If I did nothing else but pick up all the desperate & abandoned pet chickens in this area I still would never get on top of the situation because the stream is unending.

Usually all I have time for are the very neediest ones who wouldn’t survive more than a few nights out on their own. All of the ones I don’t catch eventually disappear or I find their remains scattered after a predator attack or they starve to death, but the number of abandoned feral birds stays the same because people are always dumping more.

Who’s to blame?
1) Erratic laws that allow anyone with two dollars to take home a baby chick
2) refusal by mainstream animal orgs to put resources into educating the public or addressing the unrestricted sales of baby pet poultry to anyone regardless of intent or ability to care for them.
3) draconian anti-rooster laws that punish the animal victims, not the people who put them there

17/11/2025

You know that feeling when you spot a lump in the middle of the road and pray it’s just an old sweater and *not* an animal? Well, this time, that lump really *was* an animal!

Although he seemed frozen with fear at first, this poor little rooster instantly transformed into the calmest, most curious little gentleman once he was safe inside the car, as if he knew he was out of danger.

It always baffles me when people abandon sweet, healthy, clearly well-loved pets. Someone obviously cared for him once, so why would they suddenly dump him?

More often than not, people don’t *want* to do it—they feel *forced* to. Thanks to the asinine anti-rooster laws sweeping across California & beyond, many caring owners end up in impossible situations. Knowing how grim the euthanasia rates for roosters in shelters are, “setting him free” might seem like the least cruel option they have.

You can blame individual owners all you want—but it’s the broken system that’s to blame. Thoughtless, reactionary anti-rooster laws create victims on both sides—people and their innocent companions.

******

Also, if you’re in California and live in one of the extremely scarce areas still zoned for roosters, please consider adding this cheeky and cheery guy to your flock! 🐔ChickenAdoption.com

10/11/2025

I don’t know what kind of delirium led me to assume at first that this cute little orphan was a girl, but now I realize how ridiculous that was.

If he were a girl, he would still be home inside his cozy coop with all his friends, as the treasured and adored egg laying machine he and his siblings were sold as. If he were a hen he wouldn’t have been dumped out into the parking lot like a worthless piece of trash by the people who forsook him.

Until municipalities that allow hens start allowing in the roosters as well, this cycle will never end. That’s because no one who dumps their roosters acquired them on purpose; virtually all these people were unwittingly sold mislabeled males with no idea of what was to come.

Why are stores allowed to sell chicks to urban dwellers with absolutely no warning label about the illegal rooster(s) in the mix? Meanwhile, efforts to ban roosters steadily rise. As usual, it’s the innocent animals who pay the price.

08/11/2025

It’s pure luck that I found this little rooster before the predators or the other feral chickens killed him. I followed his shrieks to find him wedged between a chain link fence and a bush as the others pecked him mercilessly.

As an outsider, this little guy was already in danger. But his odd body language and atypical communication style (that are actually typical to his breed) flagged him as an oddity to the others in the flock (not unlike what an autistic person experiences!) and instinct compelled them to turn on him.

Even though his head feathers had been pulled out, he still couldn’t see a thing with the long fringe covering his eyes. Hopefully with his field of vision restored he will gain some confidence and lead a lower-stress life.

Because of the social and physical handicaps innate to his breed, he is looking for a gentle flock of silkie or other Polish hens to settle down with. (Apply at chickenadoption.com!) But realistically, given the broad marginalization roosters already face, he’s not super likely to find a home and will likely end up living with the blind/special needs flock here.

SPECIAL APPEAL:
Can anyone donate to support him & the many others here who would otherwise have perished? This month is harder than most because, with fall being the busiest season for rooster-dumping, I haven’t had time to attend to finances. Suddenly I’ve found the food fund has run out with no way to replenish it until the 15th.

Venmo:
PayPal:

Fundraising has never been my forte, as it’s so awkward & uncomfortable, so if anyone has any fundraising skills they’d like to donate to help the chickens, please reach out too ([email protected])! 🐔😍❤️

03/11/2025

I thought chick dumping season was over but then I saw these three babies who are not even old enough to know about danger & walked right up to me. They probably would have walked right up to a coyote too without understanding the danger until it was too late.

I feel like we are flooded with nonstop messaging about abandoned dogs & cats, but not one large animal welfare organization says anything to defend the smaller, less “charismatic” companion animals who get abandoned at an equally high rate.

Meanwhile the number of rescue orgs willing to take in these less popular animals is as tiny as their funding (which is essentially zilch).

Just because an animal is cursed with the unfortunate label of “food” animal does not mean he or she is any less able to feel love or pain or the desire to live. They all fight for their lives & they all deserve protection from this gratuitous cruelty.

Also someone please adopt these three innocent babies— 2 girls and a boy— and give them a safe loving home FOR LIFE (ChickenAdoption.com)

02/11/2025

If you think California’s new wave of anti-rooster laws only target cockfighting roosters, think again.

Roosters of all kinds— including the “fancy” extremely domesticated pets— are abandoned by the thousands all over Calif. thanks to its insane anti-rooster laws. We are able to rescue only a tiny fraction of them. The rest die horribly from predator attacks or lack of food, water and shelter. The problem gets worse with each new anti-rooster law passed.

If they want to help roosters also badly, why don’t the people pushing these rooster bans care about the helpless innocent pets they’re condemning to death?

19/10/2025

Imagine living your whole life in one place with the same reliable, comfortable routine.

Then one day, you’re called a “freeloader” because you’re in henopause & you’ve stopped laying eggs. Not useful anymore. Too old.

They drive you away & dump you in a field — no food, no water & no chance.

A dumped hen isn’t “going back to nature.” She’s being left to die.

Chickens aren’t egg machines. Like any other companion animal they’re a lifelong commitment. If you just stop taking care of them one day because you’re tired of them, then you’re a dick.


12/10/2025

These 10 or 11 cream legbar hens and their protective rooster have been abandoned at a park in San Jose. They are probably a little older (like most abandoned hens) and obviously are going to die out here alone without intervention.

If anyone in California can please adopt some or all we can catch them and bring them to you. Please message us here or [email protected] if you can help

04/10/2025

This is the orange friend of the white rooster I found last week hyperventilating in fear at a parking lot.

When I let them out to meet the other roosters, the orange one was so scared he crawled into my lap and tried to hide.

These innocent souls are so misunderstood & persecuted — from average urban chicken keepers pathologically joking about “freezer camp” to bureaucratic animal welfare agencies pushing policies to ban them without concern for where they should go. (Hint: they will all be seized and killed by government agents or they will be abandoned just like this guy to be killed by cars, predators, starvation or exposure to the elements.)

Fresno County, Calif is voting on a countywide anti rooster ordinance on Oct 7 and Calif state legislators are also considering an anti rooster law that would cover the entire state, no matter how rural the setting.

Californians, contact your legislators to oppose these draconian and cruel punishment of roosters! 🐓

(Also apply to adopt this snuggly rooster and/or many others at chickenadoption.com)


02/10/2025

Big Pig has a voice like a broken trumpet but his best quality is his endearing and enduring love for his tiny friends, Biggie Smalls and Li’l Kim.

Roosters are valuable, valiant individuals and pushing for rooster bans to address cockfighting makes about as much sense as banning dogs to stop dogfighting.

The disingenuous groups who are pushing the rooster restrictions and bans all over California will declare, “Punish the deed, not the breed” when it comes to organized dogfighting rings. Yet somehow they forget this principle when it comes to cockfighting.

These hypocrites are counting on the pet-rooster people just not caring as much as the pet pitbull people.

If you are in California ask your legislators to oppose AB 928 and any further rooster restrictions. If you are in Fresno County, California, contact the board of supervisors by October 6 in opposition to the proposed rooster restrictions.


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Our Story

Hen Harbor is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue of chickens and other birds exploited by the agriculture industry.

The 3-acre sanctuary in the mountains of Santa Cruz, Calif., was originally dedicated to providing refuge to hens discarded by the egg industry. However, our mission quickly expanded to include the rescue and re-homing of birds discarded by the backyard egg industry as well -- unwanted roosters as well as older hens whose owners don’t value them for anything beyond their egg-production. In addition to our approximately 80 permanent (older/special-needs) birds, we regularly rescue and re-home abandoned, domesticated poultry. In 2017, we we able to re-home close to 200 formerly unwanted, doomed chickens and ducks.