CJay Martin didn’t have the easiest start in life.
He was born without eyes, with his heart in the wrong side of his body, with only half of his right lung and with one-third of his brain missing.
Martin, who has autism, epilepsy and ADHD, also began developing anxiety and depression at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This led mom Amy to purchase emotional support chickens to keep him company – and six were introduced into the backyard.
But his hometown of Bangor, Maine has rules against keeping fowl – meaning they were soon at threat of being taken away.
Amy told the Bangor Daily News: “During COVID, C-Jay started struggling because he’s very social and we lost all our activities and no one came over.
“For the past two years, he wasn’t talking to anyone and was very withdrawn.”
Neighbors spoke up in defense of CJay and his beloved emotional support chickens.
“As a parent, I know how fiercely Amy takes care of CJay and this is a great way for him to feel socially and emotionally supported,” neigbor Imke Jandreau told the outlet.
“They’re not a nuisance, we don’t hear them, we don’t see them, and we as neighbors would have never known there were chickens in the backyard.”
This week, however, an appeals board voted unanimously to allow CJay Martin to keep his six emotional support chickens, whom he’s named Stella, Salty, Popcorn, Cheeks, and Pepper. (He still hasn’t decided what to name the sixth chicken.)
There are, however, a few caviats — chief amongst them being that the chickens are only allowed to be females, with no males allowed, to prevent breeding, and that they may not be used as “meat birds” or be sold for profit.
Amy, however, doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about.
“Since the chickens came, he’s excited, feels more involved and has more of a purpose,” she said. “He’s much happier and goes outside more because he’s coming out in the morning to let them out and puts them to bed at night. We’re not looking to sell eggs on the weekends or raise meat birds. They’re a therapeutic device for CJay.”
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