THL
Why eating chicken is bad for animals, the planet, and our health.
Around the world, more and more people are eating chickens. Unfortunately, that means the number of chickens being farmed is also going up. Likewise, eggs are becoming more popular. But what does a chicken farm really look like, and what’s the life of a chicken living in one like?
Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is not good.
How does a chicken farm work?
We all like to imagine that our eggs and chicken breasts come from the fluffy, happy looking hens pictured on advertisements. Most people imagine that the birds spend their days wandering around vast open spaces with plenty of grass, natural sunlight, and ample space to spread their wings.
Unfortunately, that perception of chicken farms has been carefully constructed by producers to make consumers feel good about buying their products. The sad truth is that the vast majority of chickens, whether raised for meat or eggs, spend their lives on factory farms in inhumane conditions.
How are chickens used for meat raised?
The first hours of a chick’s life consist of being vaccinated, dumped unceremoniously in a crate with dozens of other baby birds, and then shipped off to the farm where they will spend the next several weeks of their lives.
Once they arrive, broiler chickens spend their days inside large sheds alongside thousands of other birds. Thanks to their genetics, they consume so much food and grow so quickly that by 42 days old they are once again being dumped into crates and being sent on their way to the slaughterhouse.
How are chickens raised for eggs?
Known in the industry as layer hens, the chickens who lay eggs for humans’ breakfasts and baked goods are likely to spend their entire lives confined to cages along with dozens of other birds, some of whom are already carcasses.
Despite being called ‘enriched’, the cage only offers a small perch, scratching pad, and some filthy litter. The mother bird only has an A4 sheet of paper’s worth of personal space, and so she is unable to fully extend her wings or stretch. Due to the stress and tight quarters, she’s likely to be missing most of her plumage and routinely bullied by the other distressed hens.
At what age do chickens stop laying eggs?
Hens will naturally lay eggs for up to ten years. On factory farms, their lives are cut short at two years. This is because the first two years of their lives are the most productive. Once the hen gets a little older, the number of eggs she lays goes down, making her less profitable for the producer.
By the time she’s killed, she has only lived a fifth of her reproductive life. But due to the inhumane pace of production on her body, it’s likely she’s still endured painful keel fractures and cloacal prolapse. These painful conditions result from the hundreds of eggs she is compelled to lay each year, far beyond the amount she would naturally lay if she were free.
Do chickens feel sad when people take their eggs?
We can’t say for sure how chickens feel when we take their eggs away. Most of the time, once they’ve been laid, the hen will simply walk away, leaving them to be taken.
However, sometimes chickens become broody, protecting their eggs and sitting on them for an extended period of time and attempting to hatch them. During this time, the mother hen may chirp at her eggs and, if they’ve been fertilised, the eggs will chirp back, building the foundation for the bond that will form once they’re hatched.
How are chickens kept on farms?
Millions of layer hens in the UK are housed in cages called enriched cages, which provide only marginally better welfare than traditional battery cages. The more restrictive cages were banned in the UK in 2012; however, around the world, billions of hens have to live in these even more restrictive and inhumane battery cages.
Other chickens, including both some layers and the majority of broilers, spend their lives in large sheds with thousands of other chickens. These sheds typically have their light manipulated in order to maximise the birds’ productivity, causing layers to produce an excessive amount of eggs.
What are the types of chicken farming?
There are several types of chicken farming. Chickens are farmed for their meat and eggs. There are also breeder farms that support the intensive scale of those industries. A smaller, niche group of chickens are farmed for research or shows.
The vast majority of chickens are raised for either meat or eggs on industrial farms, because those return the most significant profit. However, intensive farming is not the only way to raise chickens.
Intensive
Intensive chicken farms are characterised by long sheds, each containing thousands of chickens. Sometimes these chickens are in cages, and sometimes they’re left to roam around. Different farms offer different conditions, but they all have a similar goal: making as much profit as possible with little regard for what that means for the welfare of their resident birds.
Alternatives
There are some alternatives to intensive facilities, though they make up a tiny percentage of chicken farms. For example, some farms are free-range or organic, meaning the chickens usually have at least some access to the outdoors and more room per bird.
What is the environmental impact of chicken farming?
Despite often being billed as environmentally friendly due to the fact that chicken farms are not as bad as beef farms, chicken farming is by no means a good, or even neutral, choice when it comes to climate-conscious eating.
For example, nine calories are needed for every calorie that a chicken produces. This means that chickens consume nine times as much energy as we get from eating them.
All of that food has to be grown somewhere. A whopping 50% of all livable land is used for agriculture, and more than a third of that is dedicated just to growing livestock feed.
What are the health concerns in chicken farming?
Chicken farming is a likely source of the next major pandemic. Already, avian flu is sweeping across the world, killing billions of birds and infecting dozens of different species, including a few humans.
In addition to the risk of disease spread, chicken farming harms nearby communities that are at greater risk of developing breathing and other health problems due to their vicinity to a factory farm.
How old are chickens when they’re slaughtered in the UK?
In the UK, broiler chickens are typically slaughtered at just 42 days old. At that point, they are still chicks and haven’t even reached sexual maturity.
Meanwhile, layer hens live for two years before they are sent to slaughter. Because they don’t grow quickly enough to be profitable and don’t lay eggs, male chicks within the egg industry are killed shortly after hatching.
Is factory-farmed chicken bad for you and the planet?
Chicken farming is detrimental not only for the chickens raised in the system, but also for personal, public, and environmental health.
How do factory farms use antibiotics in chickens?
Due to their weak immune systems and the filthy living conditions, chickens on factory farms are given antibiotics preventatively, before they get sick. Unfortunately, some of these antibiotics are also used to treat people. The heavy use of antibiotics on chicken farms contributes to the problem of resistant bacteria. More than a million people die annually from such antibiotic-resistant infections.
Environmental impact
Like all factory farms, chicken farming operations have a monumental impact on the environment. Every year, the industry belches 360 million tons of emissions, while taking up valuable land and polluting water.
Often, the argument is made that we should eat chicken instead of beef in order to be more climate-conscious. However, this argument is flawed. Though beef is still much worse for the planet, chicken production is also damaging to the environment. The true climate-concious diet choice is to eat plant-based.
What are the health impacts of chicken farming?
Chicken farming, especially when done on a large scale, comes with numerous health risks.
Avian influenza
Bird flu can spread like wildfire through a shed containing thousands of birds and risk mutating to infect human staff.
Virulent Newcastle disease
Found in both domestic and wild birds, Newcastle disease usually doesn’t impact people - but when it does, it causes minor eye infections. In birds, the disease is usually deadly.
E. Coli
Escherichia coli, or E. Coli, is an infection caused by bacteria that typically causes stomach pain and diarrhoea. In severe cases, it can result in kidney failure. E. Coli in chicken is also a major cause of urinary tract infections.
Growth hormones
Giving chickens hormones to promote growth is strictly prohibited in the UK. However, several antibiotics can legally be given preventatively to promote growth.
Salmonella
Salmonella, a bacteria that lives in the guts of some chickens, causes food poisoning that usually lasts up to a week.
Who is the biggest chicken producer?
As the 3rd largest chicken producer in the EU, it comes as no surprise that the UK has some pretty massive farms. Moy Park, which is the country’s largest producer of organic and free-range chickens, has 35 million birds across their farms at any given time.
When it comes to egg production, Noble Foods is the largest producer, with 30 million eggs packaged every week.
The Bottom Line
Industrial chicken farms are not the answer to the climate crisis or to feeding the masses. Instead, they are jeopardising public health and driving climate change. Not only are they bad for us, but they’re bad for the chickens who suffer immensely, whether they are kept for meat or eggs.
We’re fighting for a better system. Join us.
