To get updates on new site content, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Chickens

From JFA Wiki

This is a draft. It will remain in the Staged namespace until it is completed.

This article provides information about chickens that should prove useful to those advocating for animal rights, as well as to those exploring the rationale for veganism.

After providing a bit of general information on chickens, it summarizes a number of injustices and ways chickens suffer.

Then, lest anyone think the suffering is substantially mitigated by purchasing products with a humane label or certification, we show why conditions for chickens sold with various certifications and labels were only marginally improved if they were improved at all.

After that, we discuss the sentience and cognition of chickens, exploring their rich emotional and mental lives, as well as their ability to suffer.

To say that chicken production is unjust to chickens is an understatement, but it also has human costs. We show the health risks associated with eating chicken meat and eggs. Finally we point out the social consequences of chicken production, including worker injuries, worker mental health, and neighborhood crime.

The downsides to chicken production and consumption are many, and a book could be written about each of them. This article seeks to be as concise as possible, yet cover all the major dimensions of this topic.

General Information

It's commonly thought that the domesticated chickens used for meat and eggs are primarily descended from the Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia. More recent research paints a more complex picture—birds from India, Cambodia, Ceylon, and other areas may also be involved in the lineage.[1]

Chickens were used widely in Southeast Asia, India, Tibet[2],and were a common fixture in ancient Greece. Their exploitation in the West spread from Greece to Rome and then on to Europe. [2]

Globally, over 76 billion chickens are slaughtered annually for meat and another 11 billion laying hens are slaughtered when their female reproductive systems are used up and they are no longer profitable.[3] In the United States, the figures are 9 billion and 375 million[3]. Far more chickens are slaughered than any other farmed animal.[3]

Injustices

The injustices and abuses to chickens discussed below are either standard procedure or not unusual—even those chickens and chicken products with a humane label or certification, as discussed in the next section. The pressures of production require animals to be mistreated in order to be profitable. To omit a significant number of these injustices would render the products unaffordable by all but the most affluent.

Loss of Life

There is a reason the loss of life is the first injustice discussed.

Slaughter

Several methods of killing chickens are in use, and include manual neck breaking, decapitation, and gassing.

In some facilities, chickens are stunned before slaughter to reduce injury from flapping and to desensitize the chicken to pain. This can result in broken wings and bones, dislocations, deep breast muscle hemorrhages.[4]

"A significant number of broiler chickens are not properly stunned; the overwhelming majority of broilers do not have their necks cut efficiently, and as a consequence, many birds may recover consciousness as they bleed to death and may be alive when entering the scalding tank."[4]

Mass Extermination of Male Hatchlings (Culling)

Because laying hens are bred specifically to lay eggs, males hatched from the laying hen variety of chicken are not profitable—they don't yield sufficient meat and they can't lay eggs. And because they are not profitable, the males are ground alive in a macerator, gassed, or suffocated, shortly after they are hatched. This industry refers to this practice as chick culling. (Weak and struggling females are also discarded in this manner.[5])

Hatchlings are about 50% male and 50% female. So statistically speaking, every laying hen has a brother who has been violently slaughtered. This is true even for backyard chickens, as the female hatchlings are sold not only to commercial producers, but individuals keeping backyard chickens.

In the United States, over 375 million male chicks are slaughtered via culling. Worldwide, it's in the billions.[6]

Overcrowding and Confinement

Suppression of Natural Behaviors

Filth and Stench

Filth, stench, and feces were everywhere. Many of the birds were covered in feces and so weak that they could not clean themselves. Have to live their entire life in suffocating stench of feathers, dander, urine, and species. Some were stuck in manure so deep it could be described as a manure pit. They were almost buried in their own feces. Some were splayed out on filthy concrete floors barely able to breathe.

Sickness and disease were common. Some we so sick you could hear them struggling to breathe. Some hens didn't have the strength to stand on their own two legs. Some barely able to move or respond to anything around them. Birds were found dead and dying. Chickens that had lost half their body weight.

Investigators were overwhelmed by the constant cries of distress.

Source[10]

Other conditions inside the warehouses add to the misery of the confined birds. To mention only one, for brevity's sake: the ammonia-laden air in the chicken houses is so noxious that the birds commonly suffer respiratory disorders, severe flesh and eye burns, and even blindness.[11]

Spread of Disease

Battery Cages

Despite failed and weak legislation and the federal and state levels[12], and despite the trend for producers and grocers to promise to go cage-free[13], as of 2014 over 95% of eggs involved battery cages[14]. There is little evidence that the situation has materially improved since.

Hens in battery cages spend their lives confined to a space less than the size of a standard sheet of paper,[15] preventing or hindering their ability to turn around, preen, spread their wings, or scratch for food.[16]

Dibilitating Selective Breeding

A laying hen produces more than 300 eggs a year, but the jungle fowl from which they are bred lay less than 10 eggs in a year. This causes both physical and physiological stress.[17] The large increase in the number of eggs laid is from a combination of selective breeding as well as the tendency of the hen to lay more when eggs are removed in order to follow her instinct to form a proper brood.[18]

Laying hens are also bred to lay large eggs for which they have not evolved, stressing their reproductive system, and causing such problems as osteoporosis, bone breakage, and uterus prolapse.[19]

The modern broiler chicken is unnaturally large and has been bred to grow at an unnaturally fast rate and have large-sized breasts. This selective breeding comes with serious welfare consequences, including leg disorders, skeletal, developmental and degenerative diseases, heart and lung problems, breathing difficulty, and premature death.[20]

Debeaking

Debeaking is painful, causes lasting suffering, impairs feeding, eliminates exploratory pecking, and contributes to lice from impaired preening.[21]

Rough Handling

When chickens raised for meat reach their desired slaughter weight, they are caught, created, transported, unloaded, and placed in holding pens until slaughter.

A review of videos of these activities shows squawking birds bring grabbed 4 at a time by their feet being roughly thrown or shoved into crowded crates, birds suffering dislocations and broken bones, wings and heads crushed in crates, feed withdrawal, birds dying from suffocation, heat and cold, and birds unable to stand from exhaustion. [22][23]

Research bears this out—a 2016 study in Poultry Science revealed that in addition to the physiological stress these procedures inflict, it is not unusual for a bird to experience dehydration, disease, injury, and pain, and even death. The injuries include wing and leg fractures, lesions, bleeding, bruising. [24]

Light Manipulation

Osteoporosis

Forced Molting

Mental Illness

Humane Labels and Certifications

Investigations by Consumer Reports, The Open Philanthropy Project, and numerous others reveal that these certifications and labels are largely meaningless, as shown below.

These investigations show that the standards are weak and unenforced, audits and inspections are rarely done, and if they are done and violations are found, which is infrequent, no one gets fined.

Cage-Free

Consumer Reports advises you to “ignore cage-free claims” for chickens.[25] "'Cage-free' does not mean the chickens had access to the outdoors." It only means the chickens were not confined to a cage.[26]

Cage-free chickens, like free-range chickens, may be confined not by a cage but by crowding so extreme that turning around and engaging in the natural behaviors of preening, nesting, foraging, dust bathing, and perching is difficult or impossible. Such extreme crowding in large metal warehouses is the norm.[27][28]

Free Range

The USDA standard for free-range requires only that chickens are given some access to the outdoors. There are no stipulations for the size or quality of the outdoor space, and there is no requirement that the chickens actually spend time outdoors.[29] Also, the claim does not have to be verified through inspections.[30]

So it's not surprising that investigations by Consumer Reports (and others) reveal that most chickens labeled free-range spend their lives confined inside a crowded chicken house. The free-range space itself may be nothing more than an enclosed concrete slab that the chickens never use. These individuals lack the room even to turn around, much less engage in their natural behaviors of preening, nesting, foraging, dust bathing, and perching.[30] This has led Consumer Reports to say that free range is one of the most potentially misleading labels because of the discrepancy between what it implies and what is required to make the claim."[30]

Only one percent of eggs are from free-range hens that have the option to go outdoors, but like the other 99 percent, even those hens have likely never actually been outdoors.[31]

Jonathan Foer, in his well-researched and fact-checked book[32] Eating Animals, sums it up well in saying that "the free-range label is bullshit" and "should provide no more peace of mind than 'all-natural,' 'fresh,' or 'magical.'"[33]

Whole Foods Market (GAP)

Whole Foods Market spearheaded development of the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) certification program and sells various products, including eggs and chicken meat, with GAP labels.

The Open Philanthropy Project criticized GAP for having weak enforcement and for providing only slight improvements over standard factory farming conditions.[34] For example, according to Consumer Reports, "standards for slaughter do not exist at any level for chickens and there is no limit on their rate of growth."[35]

Organic

Some have the perception that chickens with the organic label means they are humanely raised, but that is not the case. Organic farmers are free to treat their animals no better than non-organic farmers. This is because the USDA, which controls the organic label in the United States, ruled that the label does not allow "broadly prescriptive, stand-alone animal welfare regulations."[36]

Consumer Reports informs us that while there are organic standards relating to animals, they lack clarity and precision, letting producers with poor standards sell poultry and eggs.[37]

United Egg Producers Certified

Consumer Reports says that while the label is verified, "it is not meaningful as an animal welfare label because certain basic conditions, such as the freedom to move, are not required."[38]

American Humane Certified

According to Consumer Reports, "the requirements fall short in meeting consumer expectations for a 'humane' label in many ways."[40]

Animal Welfare Approved

This is the only certification that Consumer Reports says has strong standards, yet the standards still allow for mutilations[41]and other injustices. Also, products with this label are challenging to find. A search using their own product finder reveals that it's unlikely you will find any products with this label at a grocery store near you.[42]

Certified humane raised and handled

Consumer Reports says that "we do not rate Certified Humane as a highly meaningful label for animal welfare, because the standards do not have certain requirements that a majority of consumers expect from a 'humanely raised' label, such as access to the outdoors."[43]

Backyard chickens

Although backyard chickens are not associated with a certification or label like the others that we are covering here, they deserve a closer look. A considerable number of people regard the practice of keeping chickens in the backyard for food as innocuous.

Baby chicks often die in transport. A quick search will find numerous reports of chicks being shipped alive to backyard hobbyists and dying in transport—and reports of those that make it being greatly stressed.

Backyard chickens are the same varieties or similar varies as commercial chickens, and are subject to all of the abuses that result from culling and selective breeding, as discussed below.

Backyard hens are likely to be slaughtered when egg production wanes, preventing them from living out their natural lives. As one hobbyist euphemistically put it, "when the expenses outweigh the value, then changes have to be made."[44]

The slaughter of backyard chickens whether laying hens or broiler chickens, is usually done by slitting the throat and waiting for the convulsing chicken die its slow death. The slaughter is violent, cruel, and painful, just as with commercial operations.

Sentience and Cognition

Human Health and Nutrition

Eggs

Chicken Meat

Social Consequences of Chicken Production

Worker Injuries

Poultry workers suffer serious injuries at twice the rate of other industries, and are more than six times as likely to have sickness related to work, according to The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).[45]

OSHA data from 2013 revealed poultry worker suffered carpal tunnel syndrome seven times more than average and workers were 4.5 times more likely to identify repetitive motion for serious injury.[46][47][48]

The GAO found that workers were hesitant to speak up about the injuries for fear of retaliation, suggesting the problems may be underreported.[49]

The Union of Concerned Scientists concludes that with the increase in chicken processing line speeds allowed by the USDA in late 2018, the situation will only get worse.[50]

Worker Mental Health

Neighborhood Crime

Concluding Remarks

To those who have fully absorbed the undeniable scope and breath of the suffering propagated by chicken production and consumption, both to chickens and humans, the word juggling made in attempts to maintain the mental fog of denial seem incredible. Slaughter is called sacrifice...[51]

Footnotes

  1. Smith, Page, and Charles Daniel. The Chicken Book. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000, 11-13.
  2. 2.0 2.1 ibid.,16-30.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Derived from United Nations FAO statistics for 2017: “FAOSTAT.” Accessed June 10, 2019. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QL.
  4. 4.0 4.1 “Welfare at Slaughter of Broiler Chickens: A Review.” Accessed June 12, 2019. https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2008.1.5.
  5. “What Happens with Male Chicks in the Egg Industry? – RSPCA Knowledgebase.” Accessed June 10, 2019. https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-happens-with-male-chicks-in-the-egg-industry/
  6. Estimated from 2017 data: “FAOSTAT.” Accessed June 10, 2019. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QL.
  7. “United Egg Producers Statement on Eliminating Male Chick Culling.” UEP Certified (blog), June 10, 2016. https://uepcertified.com/united-egg-producers-statement-eliminating-male-chick-culling/.
  8. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/egg-producers-killing-male-chicks-stop_n_575b0adde4b00f97fba8406f
  9. Daley, Jason. “A German Grocery Chain Is Selling First-Of-Its-Kind ‘No-Kill’ Eggs.” Smithsonian. Accessed June 10, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-no-kill-eggs-are-now-available-berlin-supermarkets-180971117/
  10. Direct Action Everywhere. Truth Matters: DxE Investigators Expose “Humane” Fraud at Whole Foods. Accessed April 2, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU4PJCuslD0
  11. “Ammonia Toxicity in Chickens.” PoultryDVM. Accessed October 25, 2018. http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/ammonia-burn
  12. “A Decade Later, Another ‘Cage-Free’ Measure Is on the California Ballot.” Civil Eats, October 25, 2018. https://civileats.com/2018/10/25/a-decade-later-another-cage-free-measure-is-on-the-california-ballot/.
  13. “Cage-Free Commitments.” Accessed June 10, 2019. https://welfarecommitments.com/cage-free/.
  14. Greene, J.L.; Cowan, T (2014). "Table Egg Production and Hen Welfare: Agreement and Legislative Proposals, Accessed June 10, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170918033619/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/47ce/d140eac346b2b8d59781291411dd60148bfe.pdf
  15. Friedrich, Bruce, ContributorExecutive Director, and The Good Food Institute. “The Cruelest of All Factory Farm Products: Eggs From Caged Hens.” HuffPost, 13:29 500. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eggs-from-caged-hens_b_2458525.
  16. Prescott, N.B. and Wathes, C.M., (2002). Preference and motivation of laying hens to eat under different illuminances and the effect of illuminance on eating behaviour.  British Poultry Science, 43: 190-195
  17. Cheng, H.-W. “Breeding of Tomorrow’s Chickens to Improve Well-Being.” Poultry Science 89, no. 4 (April 1, 2010): 805–13. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.2009-00361
  18. Rutherford-Fortunati, Rutherford-Fortunati on. “Do Chickens Mourn the Loss of Their Eggs?,” June 29, 2012. http://gentleworld.org/a-chickens-relationship-with-her-eggs/
  19. Jamieson, Alastair. “Large Eggs Cause Pain and Stress to Hens, Shoppers Are Told,” March 11, 2009, sec. Finance. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/4971966/Large-eggs-cause-pain-and-stress-to-hens-shoppers-are-told.html
  20. Stevenson, Peter. “Leg and Heart Problems in Broiler Chickens.” Compassion in World Farming, January 2003. https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/3818898/leg-and-heart-problems-in-broilers-for-judicial-review.pdf
  21. “Welfare Implications of Beak Trimming.” American Veterinary Medical Association, February 7, 2010. https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/LiteratureReviews/Pages/beak-trimming-bgnd.aspx
  22. “Chicken Loading and Transportation - Google Search.” Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.google.com/search?q=chicken+loading+and+transportation
  23. “Chickens Suffer during Catching, Loading, and Transport.” Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.helpthechickens.ca/transport.php.
  24. Jacobs, Leonie, Evelyne Delezie, Luc Duchateau, Klara Goethals, and Frank A. M. Tuyttens. “Impact of the Separate Pre-Slaughter Stages on Broiler Chicken Welfare.” Poultry Science96, no. 2 (February 1, 2017): 266–73. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps/pew361.
  25. “A ‘Cage-Free’ Claim: Does It Add Value?” Greener Choices |Consumer Reports, March 5, 2018 http://greenerchoices.org/2018/03/05/cage-free-add-value/
  26. What Does ‘Cage Free’ Mean?” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, February 6, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/02/06/cage-free-mean/
  27. Ibid.
  28. Dan Flynn, “Cage-Free Hens Don’t Improve Egg Food Safety, Nutrition Levels,” Food Safety News, March 1, 2017, http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2017/03/cage-free-hens-dont-improve-egg-food-safety-nutrition-levels/
  29. “FSIS.” Food Safety Inspection Service, USDA, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/food-labeling/meat-and-poultry-labeling-terms
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 “What Does ‘Free Range’ Mean?” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, April 25, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/04/25/free-range/
  31. “A Hen’s Space to Roost.” New York Times, August 15, 2010. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/weekinreview/20100815-chicken-cages.pdf
  32. Yonan, Joe. “Book Review: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer,” November 22, 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112001684.html
  33. Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. Little, Brown, 2009, 102 “A ‘Cage-Free’ Claim: Does It Add Value?” Greener Choices |Consumer Reports, March 5, 2018
  34. “Global Animal Partnership.” Open Philanthropy Project, March 26, 2016.  href="https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support">https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support
  35. “Global Animal Partnership Step 5+.” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, May 23, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/05/23/global-animal-partnership-step-5/
  36. Whoriskey, Peter. “Should ‘USDA Organic’ Animals Be Treated More Humanely? The Trump Administration Just Said No.” Washington Post, December 15, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/15/should-usda-organic-animals-be-treated-more-humanely-the-trump-administration-just-said-no/
  37. “Do You Care about Animal Welfare on Organic Farms?” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, February 6, 2018. http://greenerchoices.org/2018/02/06/care-animal-welfare-organic-farms/
  38. “United Egg Producers Certified.” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, March 23, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/03/23/united-egg-producers-certified/
  39. “United Egg Producers Certified.” Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, March 23, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/03/23/united-egg-producers-certified/
  40. “American Humane Certified.” Consumer Reports—Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, January 11, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/01/11/american-humane-certified/
  41. “Animal Welfare Approved.” Greener Choices |Consumer Reports, November 16, 2016. http://greenerchoices.org/2016/11/16/awa-label-review/
  42. “Find Products.” A Greener World. Accessed October 4, 2018. https://agreenerworld.org/shop-agw/product-search/
  43. “Certified Humane Raised and Handled.” Consumer Reports—Greener Choices | Consumer Reports, January 30, 2017. http://greenerchoices.org/2017/01/30/certified-humane/
  44. “At What Age Do You Kill a Laying Hen?” BackYard Chickens. Accessed November 2, 2018. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/at-what-age-do-you-kill-a-laying-hen.837302/
  45. “OSHA Poultry Slaughtering and Poultry Processing | Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.osha.gov/dep/enforcement/poultry_processing_10282015.html.
  46. Cartwright, Michael S., Francis O. Walker, Jill N. Blocker, Mark R. Schulz, Thomas A. Arcury, Joseph G. Grzywacz, Dana Mora, Haiying Chen, Antonio J. Marín, and Sara A. Quandt. “The Prevalence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Latino Poultry-Processing Workers and Other Latino Manual Workers.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine54, no. 2 (February 2012): 198–201. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e31823fdf53.
  47. Cartwright, Michael S., Francis O. Walker, Jill C. Newman, Mark R. Schulz, Thomas A. Arcury, Joseph G. Grzywacz, Dana C. Mora, Haiying Chen, Bethany Eaton, and Sara A. Quandt. “One-Year Incidence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Latino Poultry Processing Workers and Other Latino Manual Workers.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine57, no. 3 (March 2014): 362–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22250.
  48. Musolin, Kristin, Jessica G. Ramsey, James T. Wassell, and David L. Hard. “Prevalence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among Employees at a Poultry Processing Plant.” Applied Ergonomics45, no. 6 (November 2014): 1377–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.03.005.
  49. Office, U. S. Government Accountability. “Workplace Safety and Health: Better Outreach, Collaboration, and Information Needed to Help Protect Workers at Meat and Poultry Plants,” no. GAO-18-12 (December 7, 2017). https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-12.
  50. “USDA Increases Line Speeds Endangering Poultry Processing Plant Workers.” Union of Concerned Scientists. Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/attacks-on-science/usda-increases-line-speeds-endangering-poultry.
  51. “Welfare at Slaughter of Broiler Chickens: A Review.” Accessed June 12, 2019. https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2008.1.5.

Meta

This page was originally authored by Greg Fuller. The contents may have been edited since that time by others.

  1. “UPC Factsheet - Debeaking.” United Poultry Concerns, Inc. Accessed March 28, 2018. https://www.upc-online.org/merchandise/debeak_factsheet.html
  2. “GAP Chicken Standards.” Global Animal Partnership. Accessed April 2, 2018. https://globalanimalpartnership.org/5-step-animal-welfare-rating-program/chicken-standards-application/
  3. “FSIS.” Food Safety Inspection Service, USDA, www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/food-labeling/meat-and-poultry-labeling-terms/
  4. Moyer, Justin Wm. “Whole Foods’ Expensive, ‘Humanely Treated’ Meat Is a ‘Sham,’ PETA Lawsuit Claims.” Washington Post, September 22, 2015, sec. Morning Mix. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/22/why-that-expensive-humanely-treated-whole-foods-meat-might-be-a-sham/
  5. Stempel, Jonathan. “Whole Foods Wins Dismissal of PETA Lawsuit over Meat Claims.” Reuters, April 27, 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/whole-foods-mrkt-lawsuit/whole-foods-wins-dismissal-of-peta-lawsuit-over-meat-claims-idUSL2N17U11E
  6. “Global Animal Partnership.” Open Philanthropy Project, March 26, 2016. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support