|
A COK Report: Animal Suffering in the Broiler
Industry
Summary
| |
These chickens suffer both acute and chronic
pain due to selective breeding, confinement, transportation,
and slaughter. |
The vast majority of chicken meat we find in grocery stores
and restaurants comes from “broiler” chickens intensively
confined on “factory farms.” Each year in the United States,
more than 8 billion chickens are raised on these farms.
These chickens suffer both acute and chronic pain due to selective
breeding, confinement, transportation, and slaughter.
In the 1950s, it took 84 days to raise a five-pound chicken.
Due to selective breeding and growth-promoting drugs, it now
takes only 45 days. Such fast growth causes chickens to suffer
from a number of chronic health problems, including leg disorders
and heart disease. According to one study, 90 percent of
broilers had detectable leg problems, while 26 percent
suffered chronic pain as a result of bone disease. Two
researchers in The Veterinary Record report, “We
consider that birds might have been bred to grow so fast that
they are on the verge of structural collapse.” Industry
journal Feedstuffs reports, “[B]roilers now grow
so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well
enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in
congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses.”
Broiler chickens are confined in long warehouses, called
“grower houses,” that typically house up to 20,000 chickens
in a single shed at a density of only 130 square inches
of space per bird. Such stocking densities make it impossible
for most birds to carry out normal behaviors and cause the
chickens to suffer from stress and disease. As two industry
researchers write, “[L]imiting the floor space gives poorer
results on a bird basis, yet the question has always been
and continues to be: What is the least amount of floor
space necessary per bird to produce the greatest return on
investment.”
After the industry average of 45 days in the grower shed,
chickens are transported to slaughter without food, water,
or shelter from extreme temperatures. At the slaughter plant,
the chickens are dumped onto conveyors and hung upside down
in shackles by their legs. In the United States, there is
no legal requirement that chickens be made unconscious
before they are slaughtered. Birds have their throats
cut by hand or machine. As slaughter lines run at speeds of
up to 8,400 chickens per hour, mistakes are common
and many birds are still conscious as they enter tanks of
scalding water.
Standard industry practices cause chickens to experience
both acute and chronic pain. The treatment of these animals
would be illegal if anti-cruelty laws applied to farmed animals.
But, profits have taken priority over animal welfare. As one
industry journal asked, “Is it more profitable to grow the
biggest bird and have increased mortality due to heart attacks,
ascites, and leg problems, or should birds be grown slower
so that birds are smaller, but have fewer heart, lung and
skeletal problems? A large portion of growers’ pay is based
on the pound of saleable meat produced, so simple calculations
suggest that it is better to get the weight and ignore
the mortality.”
Full report with citations.
|
