This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Three hens confined to a small wire coop in a battery farm in central Israel have become the stars of a 24-hour web-feed aimed at drawing attention to the plight of caged chickens ahead of a key parliamentary vote tomorrow.

The chickens, who barely have room to move inside their 40cm x 33cm x 45cm cage, are forced to peck for food through wire mesh.

Activists from Anonymous for Animal Rights, a Tel Aviv-based pressure group, installed a hidden camera in a covert operation at an unidentified chicken farm in central Israel.

"We had to use small yet reliable equipment that could transmit continuously from the chicken coop to a PC hidden in its vicinity," said one activist involved in the operation. "Today, in the free-flowing era of the internet, one cannot hide such things any more."

The camera was well concealed, according to Chen Morad, who is running the campaign for Anonymous. "We know they are looking for it," she said.

"Most people have no idea how hens are held. On cartons you see picture of hens in meadows in the sunshine, very happy. But in reality they are kept in cages unable to spread their wings or stand up. We want people to know what these animals are going through."

A Knesset (parliamentary) committee will vote tomorrow on whether battery cages should be banned in Israel. "We hope that the MPs watch the live broadcast before the vote," said Morad.

Traffic to the site was so heavy that it crashed repeatedly today.