Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) recently rescued 15 hens from Nature's Dozen Battery Hen Factory in Wallan, Australia.
A nine-member team spent more than one hour working inside sheds in which the bodies of numerous birds had been left to rot.
"The fumes and stench in the shed were disgusting, and the hens' beaks were severely mutilated," one of the team members reported. "The white hens in the shed looked to be only about 6 months old, yet they had long, overgrown claws."
ALV had conducted several previous rescues on the property during the past three years.
"Battery hens" get their name from the wire battery cages in which they're kept throughout their lives. Between three and five of the birds are usually kept in a cage measuring 10 inches by 12 inches by 14 inches.
The hens usually are debeaked so they won't harm the other birds in their cage.
Approximately 95 percent of all of the chicken eggs produced in the United States are laid by battery hens.
