A chicken 'with personality' has been saved from the chopping block and given a bionic leg, after animal lover Sue Murphy splashed out £600 to rescue the bird's lame limb.
Pet hen Amelia, who had been rescued from her battery farm existence, was struck down by a fractured femur but luckily for her, her new owner was not ready to stick her in a pie just yet.
Instead, the chicken had a tiny metal rod fitted into her hollow femur and Lilliputian clamps supported the bone and metal in place to some threaded pins screwed in from the outside.
The one of a kind operation fitted ‘scaffolding’ and supported the chicken’s thigh bone, while allowing Amelia free movement as the fracture healed. She was up and pecking about within half an hour of leaving the operating table.
Avian expert Richard Jones had not performed the bionic leg operation on a chicken before. He told the Knutsford Guardian: “I have no doubt Amelia’s story will raise more than a few eyebrows.
“Indeed despite performing countless orthopaedic ops on falconry birds and parrots over the past 15 years, I never seriously contemplated the same on poultry.
“These particular birds are no longer viewed as production animals and have become valued family pets. They have the added bonus of producing an egg as rent.”
Although three more operations were needed to remove the pins, Amelia’s owners said they never considered not paying the £600 to have the high tech operation.
"I’d do the same for a cat or a dog," Mrs Murphy, 51 told the Metro. "Everybody thinks I’m mad but she’s our pet. She’s got such character."