Chickens lack even the most basic legal protection

All illustrations by Sue Coe.

Chickens are the most numerous birds on Earth and are widely considered one of the most abused animals on the planet. Despite their ability to think and feel, billions of chickens are raised and killed each year for consumption and subjected to some of the worst living and slaughtering conditions imaginable to meet the world’s growing demand for meat.

Chickens are complex social and emotional beings. Research indicates that chickens are not the simple-minded creatures that many assume.

“Scientists have discovered that the bird can be deceptive and cunning, has communication skills comparable to those of some primates, and uses sophisticated signals to convey its intentions,” according to Scientific American. “When making decisions, the chicken takes into account its own experience and knowledge of the situation. It can solve complex problems and empathize with individuals who are in danger.”

Miserable lives locked in factory farms

A 2019 analysis by the Sentience Institute estimated that 99% of birds raised for consumption spend their lives confined in factory farms. Broiler chickens, the industry term for birds raised for meat, endure harsh conditions every day of their short lives.

Most of these chickens are born in industrial hatcheries, surrounded by bright lights and machines. The chicks never meet their mothers: the industry separates the unhatched chicks from their mother hens as soon as the eggs are laid. Shortly after hatching, these birds are crammed into cramped crates and shipped off to factory farms.

Once in factory farming, chickens suffer extreme stress from overcrowding. Sometimes, hundreds of thousands of birds are confined to a single shed. The birds endure unsanitary living conditions, surrounded by their own excrement. These dirty, crowded environments are known to foster the breeding and spread of zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza, which threaten the well-being of humans and chickens.

The meat industry raises chickens at an unnatural rate to make the most of profits. This rapid growth often leads to painful health problems, including bone disorders, skin burns, foot pad injuries, and heart attacks. These birds are bred to grow so fast that their legs often lack the strength to carry their heavy bodies. Some even have trouble walking or standing. They often suffer from painful lameness because of this.

Most chickens are sent to slaughter before they are two months old. Despite their large size, they are still babies when they die.

Chickens are killed inhumanely

Chickens face a gruesome end after their short, unnatural lives on factory farms. We can’t know for sure if the chickens are aware they’re going to be slaughtered, but we can be certain they feel fear and pain as they’re chained upside down and surrounded by the smell of death.

After a stressful journey to the slaughterhouse, jammed into cramped crates, workers remove the birds and tie them upside down by their feet in a process known as live shackling. During this process, one of the standard methods of slaughtering chickens, many birds flap their wings in terror and suffer broken bones and other injuries.

Birds move along an automated chain and are submerged in a pool of electrified water designed to render them unconscious, but this system often doesn’t work as intended. Evidence shows that the poultry industry’s stunning method doesn’t consistently render birds unconscious. More than half a million chickens drowned in scalding pools in 2019, according to alarming figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Shortly after being stunned, a sharp blade slits their throats to allow them to bleed out.

Finally, the chickens’ bodies are plunged into boiling water to loosen the feathers from their skin before a plucking machine removes them entirely. If a chicken is not sufficiently stunned or bled before entering the scalding tank, it will spend its final moments being boiled alive.

USDA inspectors found numerous violations during their inspections of slaughterhouses in 2021. These included birds that escaped slaughter being boiled alive during the plucking stage, live birds being left among dead ones, and other horrific abuses.

The pursuit of profit: preferring cruelty to kindness

Researchers have found that low-frequency electric water baths are more effective at stunning birds. However, they can sometimes damage carcasses, making the meat unfit for sale.

These low-frequency shocks can cause spasms during the stunning process, leading to limb fractures and ruptured blood vessels, reducing the economic value of the birds to the industry.

Researchers believe that despite these injuries, low-frequency water baths reduce the overall suffering of birds during the slaughter process because they are more likely to successfully stun birds. However, most slaughterhouses still opt for less effective stunning methods due to concerns about meat quality.

With the poultry industry prioritizing profit over animal welfare, countless birds used for meat suffer horrific deaths, sometimes while fully conscious. And because poultry are excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act, there is virtually no law to ensure the humane slaughter of chickens. A 2016 HuffPost article stated, “If just 1 percent of chickens raised in the United States each year are not effectively stunned, that means an estimated 90 million animals are dying a violent and painful death.”

In Europe, controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) is becoming an increasingly common method of slaughter. This approach involves gassing birds until they lose consciousness. CAS is considered a more humane and much less stressful experience for the birds since they can be stunned without being restrained.

Laying hens are also cruelly killed

Many people are unaware that laying hens suffer a similar fate. When their egg production declines, they are considered useless to the industry and sent to the slaughterhouse.

Male chicks born into the egg industry suffer one of the darkest fates of any animal used in our modern food system. When the eggs hatch, workers place the birds on a conveyor belt to “sex” them. Female chicks are set aside to be shipped to egg production facilities, but male chicks have no economic use in the industry.

In most hatcheries, workers throw male chicks into macerating machines where they are ground up alive.

Consumer awareness and pressure help reduce animal cruelty

Fast food chains use chicken suppliers that practice barn slaughter. McDonald’s, for example, is the second-largest buyer of chicken in the world. According to a 2021 report by Sentient Media, the birds slaughtered for McDonald’s meals continue to be cruel. The fast food chain has no minimum requirements for space or natural light and uses an inhumane slaughter process. “While McDonald’s has tried to address the growing demand for better animal welfare, the measures have fallen far short,” the report said.

Due to consumer pressure and growing awareness, McDonald’s and hundreds of food companies have publicly agreed to the Better Chicken Commitment standards, which include a transition away from the cruel slaughter of live animals.

According to a 2023 report, while some major food companies have made progress in meeting these commitments, others have not been transparent about their progress toward achieving “their chicken welfare goals.”

Ensure humane treatment of chickens

Chickens are intelligent, social animals, capable of nuanced thoughts and feelings. However, the modern poultry industry treats them as commodities, not sentient beings.

The abnormal growth of chickens causes immense pain and discomfort, all for the sake of maximizing industry profits. The brutal slaughter of each bird marks the end of a life of unbearable suffering. For billions of sentient birds, the slaughterhouse is a gruesome end to a miserable and short life, trapped in our broken food system.

Chickens deserve better than this horrific violence. Concerned consumers can call on the chicken industry to end this cruelty and adopt better industry standards to ensure better treatment of these birds.