Farmers Find a 4-Legged Chicken

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP)—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's never before seen a chicken with four legs.

There's no definitive reason why such deformities happen, said Cliff Thompson, a retired professor of genetics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. He said it could be an accident of development, akin to a sixth toe on a cat.

Brendle said he jokingly suggested to his family that it sell Henrietta in an Internet auction, but Ashley objected.

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