Father Ted star ditches the tea pot to knit woolly jumpers for battery hens
By Peter Towe
Pauline McLynn, better known as Mrs Doyle from Father Ted, has joined a campaign to knit jumpers for featherless hens that have been rescued from battery farms.
Last year, LittleHill Animal Rescue and Sanctuary in County Kildare rescued 7,000 hens from slaughter, and "re-homed them all around Ireland".
This year Pauline, their patron, is leading a campaign to knit jumpers for another batch of rescued hens who, having spent their lives in cages, don't have feathers to keep warm over the winter.
Pauline told RTÉ: "Their beaks are clipped, they've never stretched their wings and their feathers haven't grown because they've just been involved in laying eggs for their entire little lives.
"When they come out they are bald and it's really cold so I'm knitting jumpers for them."
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Pauline said: "There's a band of ladies and gentlemen all round Ireland knitting little jumpers at the moment for these hens."
LittleHill's founder Susan Anderson, who launched Operation Hen Rescue 2014, says they have a "hen hotline" for members of the public to reserve rescued birds for adoption.
The number is 085 8353077, and you can text your name, location and the number of hens you want to adopt, but you have to be quick, the slaughterhouse truck is due in early December and Susan says they have already got homes for 5,000 of the 7,000 hens.
