Katy and the free-running chooks

Katy and the Free-Running Chooks is a novel for 8 to 15 year olds.  

     This is a story of a 12-year-old girl, who with the help of a couple of friends, exposes the cruelty occurring in a Chicken Farm. Katy tries to tell everyone about the horrible things that are being done to the animals, but even her own parents don't believe her. It is only when she has the help of two friends, and some weird strangers, that she convinces the town to take action.

 " Even though she had been deeply asleep, the sound of the vehicles smashing into each other woke Katy. She sat up and looked through the window, trying to see what happened. Katy heard her father call out: 'Phone for the ambulance!'
   Still wearing her pajamas, Katy ran outside after her father. He was going through the  gate by the time she  got to the front door. Her mother was already on the phone. Katy heard her say: 'Ambulance and police!'

   From the footpath Katy could see a semi-trailer and a car had smashed together, the car was crumpled and crushed. A man was getting out of the red car, he looked drunk, staggering about he sat on the side of the road and vomited. The truck was lying on its side, and the noise from it was awful, because hundreds of chooks — hens — in steel cages were now scattered about the road. All the chooks were now frantic with fear. They squawked and flapped their wings inside their tiny cages. When Katy looked down at them, she was surprised at the size of their cages. The chooks could hardly move because the cages were so small.
   Mr Robinson helped the truck driver out of the cabin. He looked too old to be driving a truck with all those chooks. When they reached the footpath, the old man sat down. But after a moment, he began yelling abuse at the man who had got out of the red car.
   'What do you think you're doing driving through a stop sign! Are you an idiot?'
   'Don’t talk to me like that, you old goose. You’re too old to be driving. You should look where you're going!'
   Mr Robinson told them to calm down, 'The police will be here soon, and you can tell them what happened.'
   'Good. They can charge this hoon for driving through a stop sign!'
   'Yelling abuse at each other doesn't help, just try to calm down and rest.'
   Neighbours started coming out of their houses, they looked appalled at the mess. Some of the chooks were already dead. Katy went over to the truck and started to carry the cages to the footpath, because they were all over the road, blocking it. Many of the cages were upside down, and the chooks inside were either frantic or dead.

   She  looked at the wrecked car, the overturned truck, and the poor chooks in their cages. They were on the way to the factory where they would be killed. Suddenly she felt sad for the chooks. What sort of a life could they have cramped up in those little cages? And their next stop was the death house.

  And that is how the dreadful mystery started. One car crashing into a truck, not 60 metres from Katy's bedroom."