麻豆约拍

Northern Ireland's 'Mama Hen'

Thirteen years ago, Barbara Mladek gave up her full time job as a bank executive to run a hen rescue centre in Northern Ireland. She says it is now her life's mission to rescue and re-home as many battery hens as she can. She is so obsessed with hens, that she has changed her own name by deed poll to 'Mama Hen'.

Barbara also rescues abandoned hens, ducks, geese and turkeys. Her centre is run as a charity and relies entirely on donations. Over the years, she and a small number of volunteers have rescued thouands of hens from slaughter. She opposes battery hen production but has developed a working relationship with several Northern Irish poultry producers to 'rescue' some of their hens when their egg laying value comes to an end.

She knows that the hens she saves are only a tiny proportion of the commercial flocks reared in Northern Ireland's flourishing poultry business. But she says saving even one hen is worth it. It's a seven day a week round the clock commitment, but Barbara says she has no regrets about swapping office life and a guaranteed salary for the fulfillment she has looking after the birds.

Produced and presented by Kathleen Karragher