By PAUL REVOIR

Last updated at 14:37 09 January 2008

Gruesome footage of Jamie Oliver electrocuting a chicken while unwanted male chicks are suffocated is to be shown this week.

The harrowing sequence is part of the TV chef's crusade to highlight the cruelty of battery farming.

But animal lovers have described the decision to kill the chickens in a TV studio as "misguided".

They fear that the alien environment of the studio lights and noisy audience will have added to the birds' distress. And in any case, free-range chickens are slaughtered in the same way despite their better living conditions.

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The sequence will form part of Jamie's Fowl Dinners, which airs on Friday on Channel 4.

Oliver, 32, has already caused controversy by criticising Sainsbury's, which pays him £1million to appear in adverts, for failing to take part in a debate on the programme.

He will be seen electrocuting a chicken and draining the blood from its neck to show how they are slaughtered.

Another part of the programme shows how male chicks, of no use to egg production, are put in a container and killed as they are starved of oxygen.

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Oliver, who previously came under fire from animal rights groups when he slit the throat of a lamb on TV, is trying to improve the welfare of the birds.

But the RSPCA said that while it welcomed the aims of the programme, it disagreed with killing the animals in a studio.

A spokesman said: "The lights, the cameras, the noise could be frightening and cause animals potential distress."

Oliver, who won plaudits for his campaign to improve school meals, wants to raise awareness about intensively-farmed birds. Jamie's Fowl Dinners urges consumers and retailers to switch to birds reared under better welfare conditions.

He said: "I think if even a small percentage of people watching were informed and decided to shop differently as a result that would make a real difference.

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"I don't think it is sensational to show people the reality of how chickens live and die at the moment. It may be upsetting for some people, but that's how things are. And if seeing some of the practices helps to change the shopping habits of just five per cent of people watching, then it will be worth it."

A Channel 4 spokesman said it was unaware of any concerns about the programme by the RSPCA, which had actually taken part.

A vet and a stockman were on hand in the studio to look after the welfare of the animals.