AN animal rights group has released images of what it claims is cruelty to chickens on a farm in Ruishton.

Distressing scenes captured at Cambria Farm include:

  • Hundreds of dead chicks being dumped every day for several days, including one who was thrown into a wheelbarrow alive with dozens of dead bodies and left for at least an hour.
  • A worker kicking birds during daily checks inside the sheds; collecting ill birds and breaking their necks, with some still alive and flapping their wings as he carried them around.
  • Lame birds in obvious discomfort attempting to walk; birds on their backs slowly dying because they are unable to stand and reach water and birds with red, raw sores from the filthy ammonia-soaked litter underfoot.
  • Workers violently catching and crating birds for transport to the slaughterhouse, including carrying birds by one leg in violation of Defra’s welfare code.

Animal Equality, an animal protection organisation, has today released footage filmed over the past two months on a the farm that supplies Faccenda, the UK's second largest chicken company.

More than 150,000 birds are housed in four giant sheds in crowded, barren conditions to end up on shelves and menus of retailers such as Nando’s, Lidl and Asda.

Dr Toni Shephard, UK executive director of Animal Equality, said: “The birds were just a few days old when we first filmed, yet already hundreds of chicks were dying every day and the bins outside the giant sheds were full of tiny bodies, still with their yellow baby feathers.

“Just a couple of weeks later, the skips were fuller still and many of the birds were suffering from painful lameness.

"By our last visit, the sheds were so crowded it was difficult to walk through them. Some birds were on their backs slowly dying as they were unable to stand up, while others had large sores from constantly sitting in the ammonia-soaked litter as they were in too much pain to walk.”

She added: “These distressing scenes suggest we are not ‘leaders in animal welfare’ as claimed in the current row over US imports.”

Animal Equality has passed this evidence to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for investigation.

The footage was captured at Cambria Farm, Taunton, between May 24 and July 24.

Animal Equality’s investigators follow strict biosecurity measures including using on-site foot dips, wearing new coveralls and disinfecting all equipment between visits.

A Faccenda spokesman told The Times that an “external vet” was sent to the farm to investigate workers kicking chickens and approved it, described by the spokesman as “shepherding” birds out of the way.

Paul Vaughan-France, owner of the farm, told The Times: “I will take the images as good feedback and will do everything I can to work on every aspect of my husbandry.

“I have had an independent vet on site to review my practices and he is satisfied with his findings.”