Chick lucky to escape cruel stomping death

A chick has been named Lucky after surviving from a brutal stomping. Photo / John Borren

CAIRNS - They call her Lucky.

Lucky, because when some cruel-hearted person or people swept her from her cage along with her siblings and took them to a nearby gully with the intention to brutally kill them, she survived.

Lucky, because after two nights out in the open, she was still alive.

The chick was among a dozen chicks stolen from their heated cage at Len's Feed Shed at Jensen, on the outskirts of Townsville on Saturday night.

A local resident found their mutilated bodies during his morning walk on Sunday and concluded they'd been stomped to death.

"They'd definitely been trod on, it wouldn't have been a dog that chomped them," said the man, who asked not to be named.

When Len's Feed Shed employee Mandy Darrach inspected the site on Monday, all but one of the chicks had been eaten, but from the nearby bushes she heard chirping.

"She was just chirping over to me, so we picked her up and she just cuddled into us," she said. "She was out there for a couple of nights and it was raining both nights, so she was lucky."

Darrach said she had taken Lucky home to care for her and the chick was doing well.

"She's good, she just follows me everywhere," she said.

Staff were shocked by the incident and the business plans to take extra security precautions in the future. "It was a bit upsetting, we've never had anything like this before," Darrach said.

- AAP