Chickens dumped on highway

A Ballina resident is trying her best to get someone to help the poultry dumped at the roadside rest area at Wardell.

THE roadside rest area on the Pacific Highway at Wardell is looking more like a barnyard, with chickens and roosters on the loose.

Ballina resident Delia Doulman would much rather see the birds in a roost rather than living at the highway stop for southbound traffic.

But she can’t find anyone to take responsibility for the 20 farmyard animals that have been dumped at the rest stop.

She said she has contacted Ballina Shire Council, the Roads and Traffic Authority, Animals Australia, the Department of Local Government, and the RSPCA, but with little luck in finding anyone who would take responsibility for the chooks.

“The people responsible for this situation cannot understand the position of neglect these animals now face, without sufficient food and only the water which pools on the ground,” Ms Doulman said.

“Not being one to simply observe this and do nothing, I have managed tocapture some, with difficulty, and re-home them. But with many remaining I hoped some assistance could be found and so began my experience of bureaucratic buck-passing.”

She has been told an RSPCA ranger ‘will take a look’ but that ‘it would be difficult to capture them’.

“Some may think I have time to waste on the phone. I don’t,” she said.

“What is important is to ensure the welfare of all animals and to stop this shameful and cruel practice of dumping. I’m not giving up.”