Around 1,000 day-old chicks have been abandoned in a field.
RSPCA inspectors said members of the public made the discovery of the newly-hatched chickens in a field in Crowland, near Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire on Friday.
Many of the chicks are believed to be in good health, although some had died while others had to be put down due to their injuries, the animal welfare charity said.
READ MORE: School sex education "should include discussion of pornography"
It is believed the chicks came from a commercial chick producer and may have been abandoned by a third party.
The producer is fully cooperating and assisting the RSPCA with their investigations.
RSPCA inspector Justin Stubbs said: "I have never seen anything like it, it was just a sea of yellow. And the noise was unbelievable.
"The chicks are only about a day old and are really tiny and quite delicate.
"Some of the birds were dead or dying when we arrived so some, sadly, had to be humanely put to sleep.
"Thankfully, most of the chicks did not appear to be suffering.
"The breeder came to the scene to collect the surviving birds and take them back to their unit.
READ MORE: School sex education "should include discussion of pornography"
"These tiny birds wouldn't have survived long out on their own at such a young age and in such unpredictable weather conditions.
"For someone to dump these vulnerable chicks is unbelievable."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel