Chicks at sanctuary after surviving being gassed and sold as food

Male chicks are considered an unwanted by-product of egg production

Eight chicks are being cared for at a wildlife sanctuary after surviving being gassed and sold as animal feed.

The young animals were discovered in a bag of about 6,000 dead birds sold to a buyer in Leicestershire on Tuesday.

The buyer swiftly alerted a local bird rescue group and they are now being looked after at a sanctuary in Derbyshire.

The birds will remain at the centre until spring when they will be ready to be rehomed.

It is hoped the birds will be able to find new homes in the spring

It is standard farming practice for male chicks to be killed soon after hatching.

RSPCA Assured, the charity's farm animal welfare assurance scheme, said they were an "unwanted by-product of egg production", with the majority being killed using an inert gas.

Lindsay Newell, founder of Linjoy Wildlife Sanctuary in Etwall, Derbyshire, said the killed birds had been bought by a woman in Loughborough from an unnamed firm.

Ten chicks were found alive but two later died. She estimates the chicks were less than a day old when they arrived.

'Crushed wing'

"We thought they were going to be brain-damaged because when they came in they were being quiet and they were falling over but they seem to have recovered from it now," she said.

"They were up and about this morning running around.

"Last night they didn't eat straight away until I showed them.

"There is one that's a bit damaged on its wing - where I presume it's been crushed a bit - but I think it will heal," she said.

Ten of the chicks were found to still be alive but two later died

Ms Newell said hatcheries should be checking the chicks are dead before sending them off as animal feed.

"Once they're dead they're put in bags and boxes to be shipped out for animal feed for things like reptiles and birds of prey.

"These guys, how they have survived that I don't know.

"It begs the question of how many more survived and succumbed to it prior to being discovered because they were all crushed on top of each other."

She has advised the buyer to report the firm she bought them from to trading standards for poor practice.

Ms Newell feared the chicks could have suffered brain damage but she said they were recovering well