Residents of the 5500 block of Whitaker Avenue woke up to a large, yellow, fuzzy surprise.
Three hundred baby chicks were abandoned in a vacant lot in North Philadelphia. It wasn’t until the Pennsylvania SPCA arrived that the chicks were brought to safety on Saturday morning.
The Humane Law Enforcement department of the SPCA responded to calls from several worried citizens, who noticed the crowd of hundreds of baby chicks. Officials immediately rescued them and brought them to their nearby headquarters. There, they received proper housing, along with food and watering stations.
“After receiving calls from concerned citizens, our Humane Law Enforcement team responded quickly to the scene,” Nicole Wilson, the PSPCA’s Director of Humane Law Enforcement, said.
The owner of the chicks came forward to explain why the young birds were abandoned. He told officials he had hoped to take over the empty lot to raise the chicks for food resale, but failed to contact the property owner. The chicks were left in the lot for days, where the owner admitted he had lost about a thousand of the baby birds in the time prior to their discovery, the SPCA said.
Anyone with information about the case or any others involving animal cruelty is urged to call the Pennsylvania SPCA's cruelty hotline at 866-601-SPCA. Tips can be left anonymously.
