Horrified animal rights workers have taken shocking footage of bins filled with hundreds of dead chicks during an investigation into factory-farmed poultry.

The discarded dead birds were found by campaign group Animal Equality at the unidentified farm in Devon which rears chickens on an industrial scale.

And one chicken named ‘Gloria’ was found dumped alive in a skip with the rotting corpses of dead fowl, before being saved and adopted by a caring family where she is said to be flourishing.

Shocking: The discarded dead birds were found by campaign group Animal Equality at the unidentified farm in Devon which rears chickens on an industrial scale

Disgusting: Horrified animal rights workers took shocking footage of bins filled with hundreds of dead chicks during an investigation into factory-farmed poultry

Rescued: One chicken named ‘Gloria’ (top right) was found dumped alive in a skip with the rotting corpses of dead fowl, before being saved and adopted by a caring family where she is said to be flourishing.

Mass production: Investigators from Animal Equality gained access to the farm while gathering material for a film documenting the lives of factory farmed chickens

Investigators from Animal Equality gained access to the farm while gathering material for a film documenting the lives of factory farmed chickens.

The group’s UK executive director Toni Shephard, said: ‘From the very beginning, conditions at the farm were dreadful.

‘The birds were just a few days old when we first filmed, and yet already the sheds and the bins outside them contained hundreds of dead chicks - so tiny, and still with their yellow baby feathers.

‘Just a couple of weeks later, the skips were fuller still with the bodies of those who hadn’t made it, and many of the birds still in the sheds were showing signs of painful lameness.

A dead chick at the farm, where conditions were said by Animal Equality's UK executive director to be awful

Needing treatment: A chick with a sore on its back at the intensive farm in Devon, which has not be identified

Chickens off their legs: Chickens were suffering at the farm, according to investigators who visited it

‘By our third visit, the skips were virtually overflowing with dead bodies. Factory farming is a merciless business, but the biggest shock was yet to come: we found Gloria, a one-in-a-billion survivor.’

The group first visited the farm at the end of March when the birds were just one week old and already dead chicks were found in the skip and sheds.

But on the third visit - at the end of April - shocked investigators opened the lid of one of several huge bins to find a weak young bird, shivering with cold but very much alive, sitting on top of a pile of rotting corpses.

She was taken to safety and survived the ordeal and over the next few months Gloria grew into a confident, healthy bird.

Gloria: On their third visit - at the end of April - shocked investigators opened the lid of one of several huge bins to find a weak young bird, shivering with cold but very much alive, sitting on top of a pile of rotting corpses

Rescued: Gloria was taken to safety and survived the ordeal and over the next few months she grew into a confident, healthy bird

Survivor: The group first visited the farm at the end of March when the birds were just one week old and already dead chicks were found in the skip and sheds

Doing better: The group says the ultimate irony is the Red Tractor logo pinned to the farm’s office wall that proclaims the virtue of ‘kindness to animals’

But other chickens were still suffering, according to investigators, who visited the farm just days later.

Dr Shephard added: ‘We have long known that intensive chicken farms sacrifice animal welfare in favour of profits at every opportunity, but abandoning a live bird to die on a pile of rotting corpses - that’s got to be a new low.

‘It was pure chance our investigators were there that night, and found Gloria before it was too late. But we can’t help wondering: how many more birds have they thrown into a skip and left to die?’