Adopted bird helps spread message of acceptance
During the early days of the pandemic, a renegade Beacon chicken known as The Mayor became a social media star.
Now, one of The Mayor’s chicks — foster chick, actually — is the protagonist of an illustrated children’s book titled Jolene: The Disability Awareness Chicken.
Written by Karen Finnegan, who lives in Fishkill, the book tells the true story of the short life of a chick born with a deformed leg.
“I wrote the book to process my grief over the loss of a pet that I had fallen in love with,” said Finnegan, who adopted The Mayor. “Then it turned into a bigger message about disability awareness and being different.”
Over the last year, the author has toured the Beacon elementary schools reading the story to students and discussing its message of acceptance of people with differences.
That message is particularly important for Finnegan, who said that of her seven children, “four are in the queer community.” Finnegan, is also a co-founder of Defense of Democracy, a group that describes itself as “a nonpartisan group advocating an inclusive public education system.”
The Mayor makes regular appearances at the Beacon Farmers’ Market, where the chicken will perch on your head for a selfie.
Jolene’s story began in the spring of 2021, when Finnegan was regularly posting videos and photos of the Rhode Island Red on the Beacon NY Facebook page and on Chickens with Attitude, a webpage created for The Mayor. Finnegan had adopted The Mayor in May 2020, at the beginning of the COVID lockdown, after it was found wandering near Harbor Hill Court and Davies Avenue. (The Current profiled The Mayor in September 2020.)
Finnegan decided in March 2021 to add a brood of chicks to The Mayor’s family. Rather than getting a rooster involved, she purchased eight fertilized eggs. Seven were brown and white, and one was blue.
The blue egg didn’t hatch.
“I knew the chick was alive because I could put it up to my ear and hear it peeping,” Finnegan said. She researched the predicament online and learned that a failure to hatch “means there’s something wrong” and “you should let it die.”
“Not on my watch,” she said.
Following instructions in a YouTube video, Finnegan carefully cracked the egg and gently opened its inner membrane while spritzing water and keeping the chick warm under an incubator. Everything was streamed live on YouTube to The Mayor’s followers.
“Finally, it burst out of the egg and it was beautiful,” she said.
But the chick wouldn’t stand up.
“She was awake but she was lying on her stomach,” Finnegan said. It turned out the chick had perosis, a common poultry leg deformity.
Finnegan asked her 1,300 followers on the Chickens with Attitude Facebook page to suggest names for the chick. They included Miss Peeps-a-Lot, Jillian Mercado (after the model and actor, who uses a wheelchair), Robirda, Tiny Dancer, Bently and Precious. Finnegan selected Jolene because she likes the Dolly Parton song of the same name and because the chick tended to “lean” to the left because of her bad leg.
Finnegan contacted veterinarians but was told there was not much to do for Jolene. She found a specialist at the Animal Medical Center on 62nd Street in Manhattan who would see the bird, but it was going to be $800.
After raising the money from her Facebook followers, Finnegan took The Mayor and Jolene on the train to the city, where the vet explained how to give Jolene physical therapy.
“I would hold her in my hand and her injured leg would dangle down,” she said. “I would gently stretch the muscles so it would grow with the leg. Otherwise it would get tighter and tighter. I did it multiple times a day.” She even fitted Jolene with a brace.
Finnegan loved Jolene, carrying her around in her shirt pocket. “I would sleep with her on the couch,” she said.
All went well until June 2021, when Jolene and one of her siblings were attacked in their cage, probably by a rodent.
There was only a little blood, Finnegan said. While the stronger sibling survived, Jolene died three days later.
“I was devastated,” Finnegan said. She buried Jolene in her backyard under a newly planted pink rose bush.
Shortly after Jolene’s death, she teamed with Beacon artist Melissa Nastasi to produce the book. “I wanted the book to give parents a jumping off point to let their kids know that not everybody fits the same mold,” said Finnegan.
