Hen Racing

Yesterday we visited Middleton Park, in Leeds, where there was a Village Show (for want of a better way to put it. http://www.fomp.co.uk

I had never been there before, neither had OH, but I definitely plan to go back. It seems to be quite fun, with plenty of trees and paths. It was very busy yesterday, and we were really looking forward to it. There were two main attractions. For OH and darling father there was a curry stand advertised. For all of us there was hen racing.

We met up with my brother and his friend and started looking around. There was an absence of curry. A complete lack of vindaloo. The stand hadn't turned up, and that was quite a let down.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with the hen racing. I was quite confident it was cruelty free, as I believe all the hens involved were rescue hens, and the 'bets' were going to fund more rescues. So we all found our way to the enclosure. It was a very small patch, roughly twenty five feet square, marked out in a sort of spiral. Half a dozen very healthy looking hens were wearing little jackets with dayglo patches. Little bear was not sure about the whole thing.

The hen racing was as follows. All the hens started in the middle, then one person went in front rattling food in a tin and another followed banging two sticks. The nail biting competition lasted at least two minutes. Of course, darling father had picked a winner (he won a baby food jar of jam).

I was a bit confused by the hen racing. On the one hand, I don't want to see hens, especially rescue hens, suffer in any way. On the other hand, it was a bit of a damp squib. It was fun watching the hens strut happily about, and I am very keen that little bear does not grow up with a city view that food comes from a supermarket factory. And the hens seemed quite calm about the whole thing, as much as I can tell with hens.

Darling father also managed to win a raffle and three tombola gifts, but failed to score on the Labour party's bottle stall. I told him he looked too much like a capitalist.