A group of animal-rights activists took more than 200 hens from an egg farm at Burlington over the weekend, the latest in a series of raids aimed at freeing animals from human use.

Operators of Dai-Zen Farm confirmed the loss of the hens, which the Animal Liberation Front said were placed in "loving homes."

A handful of activists apparently entered the farm early Sunday and cut the wire on cages to remove the animals, said Martina Chang, daughter of owner Steve Chang.

The farm was the second in Skagit County to be raided by the group, which has freed rabbits and mink in other actions, and once spray-painted an animal research lab in Bellingham.

The Skagit County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident. Theft, burglary and trespass charges could result.

Skagit County Chief Deputy Harry Hemphill said the loss in chickens was about $1,500. Except for cut wires and broken cages, there was little damage to the henhouse. "There was no graffiti," he said.

But where the civil authorities see a crime, an ALF spokesman said the raid was moral.

"There is a higher law," said David Barbarash, ALF spokesman in Courtenay, B.C. "Animals are not here for humans to torture."

He said the hens taken from the farm were probably placed on other farms where they'll be in large cages or allowed to roam free, away from the cramped quarters of the egg farm.

Barbarash said the raiders found the animals in "horrid" conditions, living in 11-by-17 inch cages, deprived of food, and surrounded by feces, rats and dead chickens.

Chang, however, said the 84,000 chickens at her family's farm are regularly fed, barns are ventilated, cages are cleaned daily and workers regularly kill rats to keep them from taking over the farm.

"Sometimes these animal rights groups go to extremes," she said. "They trespass on the property and they did some damage to our farm. I guess we're glad to find out who did it."

She said bout 60 cages were damaged and but that they will be repaired and business will continue.

Sunday's raid was the second ALF action in Skagit County in the past two years. The group also took a dozen chickens from the Broadview Egg Farm in September 1998.

Members of the group also took a dozen rabbits from the R & R Research and Rabbitry facility in Stanwood in early January, and later that month freed 60 mink from a farm in Monroe. On Feb. 6, they spray-painted Miller Hall psychology labs at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Barbarash pledged more such actions.