CHIPPENHAM NEWS: A SECRET investigation into factory farming has revealed thousands of chickens prepared for slaughter are sharing overcrowded pens with dead birds.

Animal rights activists VIVA twice infiltrated a chicken farm that serves the Faccenda processing plant at Sutton Benger in May.

Now shocking photographs secretly taken of dead and dying chickens sharing overcrowded pens with up to 300,000 birds at a time have been released.

The protesters are calling for changes in the law to allow better treatment for the birds at Sutton Benger.

Justin Kerswell, VIVA campaigner, said: "Chickens are probably the most abused animal on the planet. They haven't got anything to do, just eat and drink, and their role is to be slaughtered.

"One the most striking things I found when I went to Faccenda was the birds have blue eyes. This means they are essentially babies being prepared for slaughter.

"They suffer because they are fed so much and gain so much weight their legs cannot take it.

"Many of the chickens come in contact with the ammonia from litter on the floor because they can't stand up and suffer burns and lose their feathers.

"We want to show people the reality of factory farming so they can make their own informed choice. The chicken companies don't want people to see these pictures."

A team of animal rights activists secretly entered a broiler room at the farm for the first time shortly after midnight on May 11.

Two weeks later the team visited the same pen and uncovered more overcrowding with dead birds sharing the floor with chickens that had lost their feathers.

Mr Kerswell said: "I have known people who look at our photographs and are so repulsed they decide to become vegetarians.

"Changing legislation can be very long and painful. The best way to protest against the conditions animals face is not to eat meat."

The Faccenda Group supplies poultry to major retailers and fast food outlets and has an annual turnover of £280m.

In September 2003 a home office raid found 20 Brazilian immigrants working illegally at the Sutton Benger factory.

Eighteen months ago the plant was ordered to pay £78,180 fines and costs for polluting the River Avon with sludge discharge.

No-one from the Faccenda Group has agreed to comment on the photographs.