Last week, disaster struck Delaware highway. A tractor trailer transporting live chickens overturned on the road, spilling the bird passengers onto the street. The chickens belonged to Perdue Farms. News of the early-morning crash spread fast, with animal rights group Liberation Philadelphia responding to the scene. Members of the organization scrambled to look for survivors in the wreckage. Speaking with the Milford Chronicle, member Mary Kate Fain said “it was just a horror story out there”. They added that “there were just body parts everywhere. It smelled like a slaughter house”. Fain explained that “we were pretty sure no one was left. But there was a patch of woods where we saw something”.

The team headed to the bushes and found a stray chicken hidden away. The bird was seriously injured, so it was sent to the Mount Laurel Animal Hospital. Liberation Philadelphia announced the rescue on Instagram, naming the chicken June.

“June was named after the main character in The Handmaid’s Tale, who also fled captors by hiding amongst trees”, they explained in a photo caption. Despite undergoing emergency surgery, the bird couldn’t pull through. Last Friday, the group remembered June with a candle-lit vigil. “The vigil was in memory of all the chickens who were killed in the crash, and who are treated cruelly by Perdue and animal agriculture every day”, Fain told Munchies. Liberation Philadelphia is asking that Perdue Farms pay for June’s medical treatment. They also ask the Farms to send the crash survivors to a chicken sanctuary. Later this week, Liberation Philadelphia will hold a public funeral for June. The event will take place at the Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.