AN ANIMAL charity has criticised a week-long promotion of British eggs for ignoring one embarrassing factor — the appalling suffering of the millions of hens which supply the industry.

Animal Aid said yesterday caged birds have no more space to move than the size of a piece of A4 paper and that even barn-raised or so-called “free-range” hens are kept in shocking conditions. Caged hens are kept in “enriched” cages which are supposed to improve conditions. But the charity said that in an investigation birds were filmed in cramped, filthy conditions.

“A dead hen was lying in one of the cages,” said the charity. “The footage appeared to show birds who had been subjected to beak ‘trimming’ — a common practice that involves the tip of the beak being sliced off, usually with a red-hot blade.”

The charity urged the public to defy Britain’s Egg Week and avoid eating eggs.