Battery egg producer fined over 'appalling conditions'

A battery egg producer which kept more than 1,000 hens in "appalling conditions" was fined £14,500 and ordered to pay £75,000 costs today, after being prosecuted by the RSPCA.

Inspectors from the charity discovered more than 1,000 hens living in the droppings pit beneath the laying floors at a WJ Watkins and Son Ltd farm in Lower Dunton Road, Bulphan, Upminster, Essex.

Southend Magistrates' Court heard how the hens had escaped from the battery cages above and fallen into the pit, and were forced to eat maggots, egg shells and dead birds in order to survive.

Inspectors also saw hens struggling to walk because hardened, caked lumps of excrement the size of tennis balls were encrusted around their feet. Some were stuck fast in knee-deep wet excrement.

The RSPCA, Essex Police and vets discovered the birds in September 2004 following a tip-off from a member of the public.

WJ Watkins and Son Ltd admitted permitting birds to suffer unnecessarily, failing to maintain cages and failing to inspect hens daily.

Farm manager Andrew Day, 32, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary pain to hens, failing to ensure the welfare of animals, failing to maintain cages to prevent escape and failing to inspect hens daily.

National poultry manager Dean Andrew Sykes, 39, admitted permitting unnecessary pain to hens.

District Judge Kevin Gray today ordered pre-sentence reports on both men, whose cases have been adjourned until 21 March.

Inspector Cliff Harrison from the RSPCA's special operations unit, said: "None of our inspectors will forget the sight of shed after shed of dead and dying birds. Some of the birds were dragging heavy balls of filth on their feet and others were sinking and dying in the wet excrement.

"These pits were terrible places for hens and humans alike. They were the size of a small football pitch, mostly in total darkness, and one of our inspectors reported 400 dead birds in just one of the eight sheds we inspected.

"Even with a team of 26 RSPCA inspectors we were still unable to deal with the sheer scale of the problem of rescuing hens from the dung-pits, and we had to ask the company to get staff to help.

"What we found on that day demonstrates what can happen if things go wrong in an intensive battery farming system."