Powys has been ranked as the worst in Wales for rates of farming animal cruelty.

Research by World Animal Protection found 53 million farm animals in Powys are confined indoors each year in 65 factory farms.

The farms in Powys represent 54 per cent of all Wales’ factory farms.

Lindsay Duncan, UK Farming Campaign Manager for World Animal Protection, said: “Powys has always been an important farm area in the UK, but the staggering number of factory farms is appalling.

“Our food system needs to change.

“The government needs to stop greenlighting new and expanding factory farms, and instead shift its support to more humane farms in the area – farms where animals can run around in the fields, play, and express their natural behaviours.

“This not only benefits the farmed animals but allows us to farm with nature and sustainability in mind.

“There is no future for factory farming.”

Factory farming is defined by World Animal Protection as ‘intensive indoor systems of rearing large numbers of animals under strictly controlled conditions, to maximise production and profit’. Factory farms are known for their low welfare conditions, with 72 per cent of piglets' tails cut off without pain relief, 95 per cent of chickens bred so large they’re unable to stand, whilst none of the animals will step outdoors in their lifetime.

High rates of mortality are ‘standard’ in these farms according to the charity, whilst chickens are often kept inside a space less than the size of A4 paper, and suffer from hock burns from standing in their own waste.

Powys has three times more factory farms than Monmouthshire, ranked second in Wales for factory farming with 19 registered farms.

Factory farming is also on the rise in the UK, increasing by 13 per cent in the last five years with 209 newly registered factory farms.

The highest counties in the UK for factory farms are Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, North Yorkshire and Suffolk.

World Animal Protection is calling residents to petition the government to stop new factory farms and expanding existing ones - view and sign the petition - https://shorturl.at/F5SMK