What a clucking tragedy.
Parents in the posh Park Slope neighborhood shelled out more than $2,000 to cover medical bills for one of their kids’ schoolyard chickens — but it died anyway.
Five-month-old hen Waffles died from egg-laying complications after she was rushed to an Upper East Side vet from PS 107’s “homestead” with a teacher forking over $2,100 out of her own pocket to try to save their feathered friend.
“[It’s been a] mixed bag,” Annunziato told The Post of students’ reactions to Waffles’ death Wednesday morning. “Lots of tears in the next class. No tears in the next.
“Some kids were very close to Waffles because she was the easiest chicken to hold,” the teacher added. “So she spent most of her days in someone’s arms.”
Annunziato is now hoping to get medical insurance for the other chicks to avoid further shell shock on any bills. The kids, meaning while are coping with the tragedy with a planned mosaic memorial,
A parent had rushed the doomed hen in a Tupperware contained to The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center on the Upper East Side Monday. The ailing bird underwent x-rays and other testing.
“I called every avian vet in Brooklyn [on Monday], and not one person would see a chicken because of bird flu concerns,” the PE teacher, who started the coop this year, recalled.
The hen was diagnosed with prolapsed vent and torn cloaca. It was injected with hormones intended to temporarily stop egg production during healing — which was expected to last three to six months before Waffles went off to the big coop in the sky Tuesday.
The online fundraiser had netted the teacher $1,600 of the money she put down.
“Otherwise, it’s coming from my paycheck,” Annunziato said. “That’s a [whole] paycheck.”
“It takes a village, more so than I thought it would be,” Annunziato reflected. “These parents have really come together and supported.”
The attempt to save Waffles is bittersweet but the teacher hopes there’s a lesson for local kids to pluck out of the tragedy.
“It’s the social-emotional type stuff, having compassion and sympathy for an animal that’s not feeling well,” she said of managing the coop.
Waffles’ friends Pickle, Stormy, Sunny, Diamond and Pom Pom – all named by different grades at the school – will continue living at the homestead, the teacher said.
The educator – who teaches kindergarten through fifth grade at the school – said PS 107 was the first school she’s worked at to approve having chickens.
The new responsibilities include arriving at the school at 5:30 a.m. each morning to take care of the flock at the school’s “homestead” – a converted garden once infested with rats.
The eggs, which just began to be laid last week, will be donated by the dozen to the Community Help in Park Slope (CHIPS) food pantry starting Wednesday.
The community coop, which is also open to students from other schools in the area, will have a “PS 107 homestead grand opening” celebration on May 10 with the park slope civic council and local elected officials in attendance.
