A RESCUED battery hen has won The Daily Echo’s Festive Pets competition.

Last month, the Daily Echo asked readers to send in pictures of their pets looking Christmassy, with some great contributions.

People across Hampshire submitted of dogs, cats, horses, and even a pygmy hedgehog.

Daily Echo pets correspondent Emily Liddell chose her ten favourite entries from the hundreds submitted, and readers then voted online for their favourite.

It was Theresa Sotiris’s former battery hen, Dora, that came out on top to win the bottle of bubbly.

Theresa, 67, dressed Dora in a Santa costume, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

“My husband had to fight at first, and we had to take the photo fairly quickly, as hens aren’t good at sitting still.

“I can’t believe she won. We will be celebrating with the bottle tonight.”

Theresa and her husband Alan, who live in North Baddesley, have owned five hens in total, and have had Dora for around eight months.

Dora is a former battery hen that escaped being culled at 18-months-old, and was given to them after she was found by a farm.

Theresa said: “We entered the competition a few years ago with another hen, but this is the first time we have won.

“People think you have to be on a big farm to own hens, but a decent sized garden is good enough.

“We’ve had chickens for five years now, but I would like a turkey, but they grow too big.”