Geoff Woodhouse, of Remarkable Vets, is planning to rescue battery chickens and rehabilitate them.
A sponsorship plan to be launched at the Lake Hayes A and P Show tomorrow.
His "adopt-a-hen" programme aims to provide a safe haven at the clinic near Arrowtown for battery farm hens past their laying use-by date.
The idea was "thinking a little bit laterally" and addressing the whole issue of animal welfare, he said.
"We have the land and the facility to make it happen."
The clinic would buy small batches of old battery hens, costing between $1 and $5 each, and house them.
It was seeking individual sponsors or groups who would pledge about $70 for a year's supply of food.
Battery chickens already rescued by Remarkable Vet clinic client Cindy Liggett were a thriving example of how they could be given a whole new life outside the cage, Dr Woodhouse said.
The hens had been rescued from a Taieri farm and, after three months outdoors at Mrs Liggett's Dalefield rural property, had grown new feathers where previously they had none.
"They arrived completely naked. Now they're happy as," Mrs Liggett said.
Dr Woodhouse said egg production and what constituted a farm or barn laid egg remained a "bit of a grey area" and the rescue and rehabilitation programme offered people a tangible way of making a difference.
The rescue programme would be similar to sponsoring a child.
The sponsor could name their chicken, would receive a photo of it and update on its rehabilitation, he added.
Battery hens were typically very weak and could not walk or move far when they were rescued from their cages, he said.
Those hens past their egg paying peak in the cage could be about 18 months old, he said.
"There's a fair old turnover."
"We plan to have some celebration of their `return to legs' when they are rehabilitated," he added.
The sponsorship programme would also extend beyond the battery hen rescue programme.
Money from eggs sold and sponsorship also used to sponsor a Hector's dolphin, a rhinoceros at the Auckland Zoo and a child in Africa, Dr Woodhouse explained.
"It's all about playing up the importance of animals' place in our whole human life cycle.
"One world, one health," he added.
