September 24, 2006


SOMERSET, Pa. -- Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously among 36,000 other birds at Brendle Farms for 18 months -- until a foreman noticed she had four legs.

''It's as healthy as the rest,'' the farm's owner, Mark Brendle, told the Daily American.

Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the chicken Henrietta after the discovery Thursday. The bird has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to her front legs but don't function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her.

In 30 years of farming, Brendle said, he never has seen a chicken with four legs.

Such a deformity happens for no definitive reason, said Cliff Thompson, a retired genetics professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He said it could be an accident of development, akin to a sixth toe on a cat.

awww.