Hundreds of newborn chicks were found in dustbins at a turkey farm after an employee forgot to lethally gas 2,000 eggs.

Witham magistrates heard yesterday that some of the eggs dumped in a skip later hatched and the chicks were found alive among the rubbish by dustbin men the next morning.

James Osbourne, 59, assistant battery manager at Kelly Turkeys of Springacre Farm, Danbury, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

The court heard that the RSPCA took the difficult decision to put down the baby chicks because they were already dying from exposure when they were found.

Osbourne, of Catherine Close, East Hanningfield, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £500 costs by magistrates.

Peter Gaywood, prosecuting for Essex Trading Standards, told the court how Osbourne was employed to gas eggs which failed to hatch by a certain date, putting the chicks painlessly to sleep while they were still in their shells.

But on September 11 last year he had forgotten to do so because there had been a "rush job" on the farm.

When the dustbin men found the live chicks they drove straight back to their depot in Chelmsford where officials and vets from the RSPCA and the Department of Agriculture were called.

Mr Gaywood said that Kelly Turkeys had no official method of checking that the work was done and that Trading Standards had contacted the company to ensure the system was improved.

Osbourne, who was not represented, told the court it was "one of those oversights" and that he was "deeply apologetic about the whole event".

A separate prosecution against Kelly Turkeys was withdrawn.

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