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Animal Equality investigation reveals the suffering of chickens on West Country Farm in UK
July 17, 2017
Updated: July 29, 2022

Animal Equality has today released footage filmed over the past two months on a West Country chicken farm that supplies Faccenda – the UK’s second largest chicken company.
Today, we are releasing scenes of extreme suffering and cruelty filmed over the past two months on a West Country chicken farm that supplies Faccenda – the UK’s second largest chicken processor. More than 150,000 birds are housed in four giant sheds on the farm in crowded, barren conditions – to end up on shelves and menus of retailers Nando’s, Lidl and Asda.
Distressing scenes captured by our investigators 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 there 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.
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