This is the moment Canadian animal activists rescue “worn out” hens from drowning in manure pits at three local egg farms after falling from their cramped cages.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the footage shows the “horrific neglect and filthy conditions” at three egg farms in the city of Abbotsford in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The footage shows hens left for dead in mounds of faeces, forced to live in cramped wire cages next to the rotting corpses of other chickens, and left virtually featherless with exposed quills, probably due to neglect and the stress of overcrowding.

PETA vice president of evidence analysis Daniel Paden told Newsflash: “Dying by drowning in a manure pit isn’t how most people picture hens on an egg farm.

“Hundreds of dead birds, along with dozens of hens who were emaciated and barely alive, were found abandoned in manure pits with no food, water, or care.

“They were packed so close together inside stacked cages that they couldn’t spread their wings and those above had no choice but to urinate and defecate on the ones below.

“One hen’s cloaca was prolapsed, a very painful and sometimes fatal condition often caused by a poor diet or the strain of laying far more eggs than is natural.

“Others suffered from inflamed feet, the result of standing on wire flooring without any relief, and powerful ammonia fumes, caused by the accumulation of excrement, irritated the hens’ lungs and burned their skin.”

PETA said that over 20 million hens are currently held on egg farms in Canada and that each operation keeps an average of around 22,000 birds.

This footage was captured by Geoff Regier and other activists on farms that onsite documents identified as Cloverhill Farms, Jaedel Enterprises, and Sonmark Enterprises.