CRUEL vandals kicked a hen to death and threw its nest containing 12 eggs over a wall after breaking into a chicken pen in Great Harwood.

Horrified Robert Baron discovered the dead animal when he went to check on the pen on his allotment in Alan Ramsbottom Way.

Mr Baron, 60, the owner of Baron Transport in Great Harwood, said the attack was the latest in a long line of incidents and told how on a number of occasions he had had to kill some of his birds after discovering them on the floor of the pen with broken legs.

He said: "There were 12 eggs under a brooding hen.

"I arrived at the pen on Monday and found the box outside with the eggs broken and the chicks which should have hatched on Thursday dead.

"I went into the pen where my hen was and they had beaten it to death. It just sickened me, this is senseless cruelty.

"I have had this pen for a number of years and my family have always had pens. It is just a hobby to me and things like this are just disillusioning. I had 32 hens, now I have got just 24 left."

Police said that the vandals had scaled a fence around the allotments to get into the shed between 11am on Sunday and 1pm on Monday.

Sergeant Dave Reddin of Great Harwood Police said: "It was a horrible crime and it made me cringe when I found out about it. I cannot believe what some people will do."