RSPCA fears rise in abandoned lockdown chickens amid bird flu outbreak

The charity RSPCA is worried that their rescue centres will soon be overrun with hens and cockerels.

Welfare workers dealt with 1,562 abandoned birds last year and took 280 chickens into its centres for rehoming.

With bird flu cases across the country, poultry owners have been advised to keep their hens and cockerels contained indoors since December 14.

Kate Parkes, poultry welfare specialist at the RSPCA, said: “It’s really important that owners follow Government biosecurity advice to help protect the health of their birds as well as to try and limit the spread of the virus.

"We’re concerned that worries about bird flu and changes to how we’re allowed to keep hens may lead to more owners abandoning their pets, putting more pressure on rescue centres.”

Ownership of poultry soared last year, with t he RSPCA believing that people rushed to buy chickens amid a shortage of eggs in shops after the first coronavirus lockdown was announced.

A spokesman said: “Many hen producers reported huge surges in demand for chicks and we believe this may be because people panic bought birds due to shortages of eggs in the supermarkets but, due to the shops being better stocked, are now ‘surplus to requirement’.

"There are also concerns that some families may have taken on unsexed chicks, which have grown into noisy cockerels so are now being abandoned.”