Chip, so named after she was corralled by California Highway Patrolmen, got Bay Area attention when she
wandered on to the Bay Bridge. One of many stories is quoted below.
Reporter David DeBolt and the shelter workers may need some help understanding the chicken-and-egg problem. Unless Chip has been consorting with a rooster, they won't have to worry about the egg hatching. Broody hens are unlikely to set on a single egg, anyway.
It's always good to see a chicken story with a happy ending in the news!
OAKLAND
-- Three people are missing a chicken, and you know how that can be.
Especially when they each claim ownership of the same chicken.
How do you tell one chicken from another? The Oakland Animal
Shelter faced the same question Thursday, when three calls came in about
a certain chicken of recent local fame: The one that strutted between
cars at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza during the Wednesday morning commute,
then lit up newscasts and social media.
"She's a very popular chicken," said animal services director
Rebecca Katz by phone as dogs barked in the background. "We've told them
to come down with proof."
The California Highway Patrol, which rescued the chicken, has not
determined its whereabouts before the bridge sightings began 6:30 a.m.
Wednesday. And she isn't talking.
Chickens
disrupted the morning Bay Bridge commute and caused a brief social
media frenzy on Wednesday, Sept. 2. (Photo courtesy Jeff Chu / Twitter)
The best proof available in this case -- the fowl has no tags and
unlike many felines and canines is not microchipped -- appears to be
photo evidence to match its coloring and size.
"They'd have to show us pictures to identify it being theirs," Katz said. "We'll go from there."
The three callers had not produced photographs as of Thursday
evening. Two rescue groups also want to care for Chip, and there's
likely other space available in Oakland's urban farming community.
The CHP first brought the chicken to a shelter in Berkeley before
it was handed over to the Oakland shelter.For now, shelter workers have
taken to calling the chicken "Chip," a nod to the CHP for its rescue. At
the shelter, Chip has access to a chicken run and her neighbors include
roosters brought to the shelter because it is illegal to keep them
within Oakland limits, Katz said.
On Thursday, Chip laid an egg, Katz said, but they'll probably swap in a substitute egg for her to sit on.
"We don't want anymore chickens," Katz said.
