chichickens kept behind bars

Alarming imiges of chickens behind bars,some stripped of feathers and others distressed or dying have been released by welfare canpaigners.These are not battery hens.They are hens kept on a farm where the birds are kept in so-called enriched cages,which are meant to give them more room and let them live more naturally.The farm produces three million eggs a week under the british lion quality banner.The farmer has admitted failings and british lion chiefs have sent in auditors to carry out welfare checks.Battery cages were outlawed in january two thousand and twelvein the U.K. and replaced with the enriched cages,which are said to give the birds room to socialise and even have space to have dust baths.In reality the birds are left behind bars for up to eighteen months.The cramped conditions can lead to birds pecking each other and stripping away their feathers.Farmers clip their beeks to blunt them and minimise injuries.The conditions cause brittle bone desease and can result in birds collapsing on the floor of the cage,where they die unable to reach food.The farms website boasts all our eggs are packed to standards that meet the requirments of the british lion mark,as well as higher levels of safety,the code claims it operates to high Animal welfare standards mirroring those approved by the R.S.P.C.A. A Viva official who went undercover said the hens are living in hell.She found sick,dying and deed hens among the birds.The british lion scheem is run by the british egg industry council[BEIC] iT CLAIMS FARMS USING THE BRITISH LION STAMP on eggs operate to higher Animal welfare standards than are required by law.BEIC challanged many of Viva,s claims.but said auditors had been asked to inspect the farm and conceded that the presence of dead birds was unacceptable.It insisted:"Enriched colony cages are a vast welfare improvment on barrab battery cages.