13 million indoor-reared chickens in Shropshire

The county has more than 13 million chickens reared indoors for their meat, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) estimates.

It says Shropshire also has the second highest number of hens reared indoors for their eggs, at over 1.3 million.

It comes as new research reveals nearly every county in England has at least one industrial-scale livestock farm, with close to 800 US-style mega farms operating across the UK.

The increase in mega farms – which critics describe as “cruel and unnecessary” – is part of a 26 per cent rise in intensive factory farming in six years, a shift that is transforming the British countryside.

Only 12 counties in the UK now host no pig or poultry farms classified as intensive by the Environment Agency.

To be classed as intensive, a farm must have warehouses with more than 40,000 birds, 2,000 pigs or 750 breeding sows.

Herefordshire has more than 16 million factory-farmed animals, mainly poultry – which means the county has 88 times more factory-farmed animals than it does humans

Animal welfare group CIWF says it wants to stop the growth of what it describes as “factory farming”, saying “animals are suffering, farmers are struggling and our health and the environment are under threat” as a result of the practice.

Peter Stevenson, chief policy advisor for the group, says while some large farms across the country are well-run, there are too many that keep animals in “overcrowded conditions”, unable to “perform their natural behaviours never enjoy fresh air or the warmth of the sun on their backs”.

CIWF has compiled a map showing hotspots in areas such as Herefordshire and Shropshire, East Anglia and Northern Ireland.Emma Slawinski, director of campaigns at CIWF, said: “There is a worrying trend towards intensive farming. Bringing animals off the land and cramming them into squalid, inhumane factory farms is not only cruel to animals but also has far-reaching effects on human health, wildlife and the planet. Moving animals away from the countryside into cages and crowded sheds may seem like a space-saving idea, but this ignores the fact that vast amounts of land are used elsewhere to grow feed for them.”

She said animals are kept in “often barren, overcrowded and frequently filthy” conditions despite enough land available to keep them in a natural environment.”

But independent farming experts and industry organisations argue that intensive farming doesn’t hinder animal welfare, and provides cheaper food for consumers.

Charles Godfray, director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, said it was not possible to judge the welfare of animals based on the size of farms, “It’s much more about how you do it” he said. “There are intensive operations which are horrible, and others which are good examples of how to look after animals well and get good outcomes.”