A rescue chicken that suffered a broken leg in captivity is now walking properly - after being fitted with a cast.<br /><br />The seven-month-old chicken, named Marilyn, was fitted with a cast on its left leg and wore it for six weeks. <br /><br />Marilyn, a broiler hen, was rescued by Tamerlaine Sanctuary last year from a Kapparot slaughterhouse.<br /><br />Kapparot is a practice in which Orthodox Jews swing a chicken over their heads three times on the eve of Yom Kippur before slaughtering it.<br /><br />Many Kapparot practitioners have replaced chickens with a bag of money which is then donated to charity.<br /><br />When Marilyn arrived at the sanctuary in Montague, New Jersey, USA, she was seen by a vet and diagnosed with a slipped tendon that splayed her leg.<br /><br />Gabrielle Stubbert, the founder and manager of Tamerlaine Sanctuary, said: "Marilyn had a very bad splayed leg but she was still a very very active chicken. You could tell she wanted to walk.<br /><br />"Chickens slip their tendons a lot. No one operates on that, not on chickens, unlike with other animals."<br /><br />The sanctuary spent several weeks looking after Marilyn and used a zipline to support her while she walked.<br /><br />Two months went on but Marilyn's leg was not getting better and she was still struggling to walk.<br /><br />Gabrielle, 58, said: "Her leg just kept getting worse, not better.<br /><br />"So two months later we took her back to the vet."<br /><br />During the second visit, the vet noticed that Marilyn's splayed leg was due to a break that had healed incorrectly. <br /><br />The vet had to break Marilyn's leg again to set it correctly and fitted it with a cast. <br /><br />Marilyn wore the cast for six weeks before she was able to roam free with her new flock.<br /><br />Since then, she has discovered a new joy for life and made a new best friend, another broiler chicken called Liberty.<br /><br />Gabrielle added: "You could say she was our New Year's miracle.<br /><br />"She's got her new BFF Liberty and just loves to run. You would never know anything is wrong she's our greatest success story.<br /><br />"She's sassy, outgoing and doesn't want to be handled. She just wants to be outside."<br /><br />Tamerlaine Sanctuary has taken in large amounts of broiler chickens like Marilyn, who are bred to grow very large very fast and tend to be slaughtered at six weeks.<br /><br />Gabrielle said: "Marilyn will be one in September. Traditionally they don't live very long as they are bred to be eaten and bred to grow large.<br /><br />"With us they live longer and happier. We have a whole flock of them who have lived until nine."
