Nearly 70 million animals are kept in the lowest welfare conditions legally allowed on factory farms in North Yorkshire each year, according to World Animal Protection.

The figure equates to 114 animals for every one of North Yorkshire's 615,500 human residents.

Between 2017 and 2022, the charity researched the presence of intensive indoor factory farms across the UK.

It found that North Yorkshire is among the counties with the highest concentrations of factory farms, alongside Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, and Suffolk.

Lindsay Duncan, UK farming campaign manager, World Animal Protection, said: "North Yorkshire 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."

Factory farms see animals living in squalid conditions and unable to move freely, with chickens squeezed into a space less than the size of a piece of A4 paper.

World Animal Protection claims that factory farms are on the rise.

Its nationwide Confined in Cruelty research found that factory farms have increased by at least 13% in the last 5 years, with 209 more registered factory farms during that period.

World Animal Protection's petition, which calls on the government to stop greenlighting new factory farms, can be signed at https://action.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/sign-our-petition-call-end-factory-farming.