The tiny birds were spotted on the back of a truck by a shocked tourist visiting Koh Lanta island.

One, which had been dyed pink, was hopping around on the ground and in the vehicle, while others had been stuffed into sealed plastic bags. 

Holidaymaker and amateur photographer Gina Jones, 33, was talking a stroll along the beach with her partner when they spotted the pink bird on the sand.

'At first I couldn't work out how the chick had got there,' she said, 'But then the pink bird hopped onto the back of a nearby dusty truck. 

'Tossed into the back of it were plastic bags full of little chicks. They were all dyed in different colours. Some were pink, others bright yellow and green.

'The original pink chick seemed to lead us over to them where he tweeted to us. 

'Meanwhile the other little chicks inside the bags tweeted back. A few pecked to try and escape but the plastic bags were tied.'

She added: 'It was around 35C and the poor little chicks must have been incredibly hot. They looked as if they could hardly breathe. 

'We tried to untie one of the bags to give them some air. It was heartbreaking.'

Ms Jones believes the chicks - which were packaged like goldfish at a funfair - were brought to the beach to sell as cheap toys for children. 

The back of the truck was littered with empty plastic bags, but she does not know how much they were being sold for.

As she and her partner secretly filmed the cruelty, a group of children appeared.

'They were looking at us strangely as if they were angry about what we were doing,' she said.

Before the couple had chance to say anything, one of the children grabbed the lone pink chick.

'He roughly put it back into a bag before throwing it into the back of the truck with the others,' the disgusted tourist explained.

'The next minute we heard the truck engine start up,' Ms Jones added. 'The children clambered into the back and the truck shot off into the distance.

'It was a very upsetting experience. The chicks had no water and no food. We haven't stopped worrying about their fate since.'

Thailand has a long reputation of cruelty to animals. 

In January this year, activists hit out at singer Beyonce after she posed for a picture with a baby tiger in Thailand. It is claimed the tiny tigers are chained up, locked in cages and taken from their mothers. 

In April, more than 50,000 signed a petition to have baby elephant Nadia freed after photos emerged of her tied to a pole and forced to perform tricks for tourists.

And in October last year, Ricky Gervais and Dame Judi Dench joined stars from Downton Abbey to campaign for an end of the brutal Thai practice of skinning dogs alive for their meat.

(dailymail.co.uk)