The rearing of chickens is big business: the one and only goal is to maximize profit / minimize cost. Nowhere in this equation, has an allowance been given for the fair and ethical treatment of the "product": in this case a living, breathing, bird. Tellingly, in the 1940s, the name of the agricultural degree changed from "Animal Husbandry" to "Animal Science". The new focus was on utilizing science to maximize return. While prior to this, the understanding was that sick and deprived animals yield poor return, with the advent of scientific methods, this pesky law of nature could be overcome. Newly developed drugs, antibiotics and gene manipulation could let chickens survive the kinds of crowded conditions and malnutrition that would have wiped out unmedicated flocks. They developed a "broiler" strain which would grow quicker and bigger than ever and a "layer " strain, that produced far less meat but many more eggs.

Broiler Chickens: Chickens Raised for Meat

Animal Research Institute of Agriculture, Canada: R.S. Gowe: "At the Animal Research Institute, we are trying to breed animals without legs, and chickens without feathers." At least 6 universities in the US and Canada are/were presently trying to do so (to spare the bother of plucking the feathers out). (1) - Peter Singer

Priority one in the advertising of chicken meat (commonly referred to as poultry) is the proliferation of the belief that chickens are happy and healthy and that they will contribute to health in those that consume it. Nothing, however could be further from the truth, on either level. For example, one well known producer has commercials which boast how on his "farm" chickens are pampered and "lead such a soft life". He, in keeping with industry "standard", keeps his chickens in 150-yard-long buildings that house 27,000 birds on average. His mass production system alone kills 6.8 million birds a week, (2)

The realization that we all have a role to play in the sustainability of our planet is at once overwhelming and empowering. In perhaps no other way is it as clear that each one of us casts a vote with every dollar we spend.

In Britain (all industrialized nations engage in factory farming and European nations are on the whole far more progressive than their North American counterparts), the Protection of Birds Act, passed in 1954 - Clause 8, subsection 1 reads: If any person keeps or confines any bird whatsoever in any cage or other receptacle which is not sufficient in height, length or breadth to permit the bird to stretch its wings freely, he shall be guilty of an offense against the Act and be liable to a special penalty" Viso attached to it: "Provided that this subsection shall not apply to poultry…" (3)

"A study published in "Poultry Science" showed that giving chickens as little as 372 square centimeters per bird (20% less than the standard amount used in the industry), would be profitable, even though so small a space allowance meant that 6.4% of the birds died (more than at lower densities), that birds were underweight, and that there was a high incidence of breast blisters, As the Authors of the article point out, the key to profitability in the poultry industry is not profit per bird, but profit of the unit as a whole. (4) The fact is that by cramming birds into extremely tight quarters: heating costs are reduced (due to shared body heat as well as smaller spaces requiring heat); and feed costs are reduced as the birds do not require the kind of caloric intake required for movement (immobilization doesn't burn off valuable feed).

Broilers are often subjected to bright light 24 hours a day for the first two weeks. Then the lights may be dimmed slightly and go off and on every 2 hours. At about 6 weeks of age, the animals have gone completely crazy from all this that the lights must be turned off completely in an attempt to calm them down. (5) Productivity increases by manipulating how light sensitive chickens are.

There is however a peculiar "side-effect" produced by placing chickens in unnaturally tight quarters, depriving them of their sleep cycle and disabling them from exercising any of their instinctual behaviors.

"The Farming Express": "Feather-pecking and cannibalism easily become serious vices among birds kept under intensive conditions." (6) Never fear, however, because a solution to this problem has already been in place for decades now.

Just as it sounds, de-beaking involves cutting off a portion of the chickens' beaks with a hot blade. "An excessively hot blade causes blisters in the mouth. A cold or dull blade may cause the development of a fleshy, bulb-like growth on the end of the mandible." (7) These growths are called neuromas (damaged nerves which continue to grow and eventually turn in on themselves) and have been shown in humans with amputated limbs to cause both acute and chronic pain. The beak is comprised of "highly sensitive soft tissue, similar to the tender sensitive flesh under human fingernails" Farm publication: "Sometimes the irregular growth of beaks on a de-beaked bird makes it difficult or impossible to drink where a normal bird would have no trouble". The birds sometimes die of thirst because they are unable to drink from the nipple-type watering devices or else they starve to death within inches of their food supply. (8) De-beaking obviously does nothing to reduce the stress and overcrowding that lead to such unnatural cannibalism in the first place.

"All the modern poultry farmer does is remove dead birds. It is cheaper to lose a few extra birds in this way than to pay for the additional labor needed to watch the health of individual birds" (one trade journal boasts that one person could care for 60,000 to 75,000 broilers). (9)

Modern chickens grow twice as quickly as traditional birds: the age at slaughter has dropped from sixteen weeks in the 1950s to twelve weeks in 1970 to seven weeks today. Further, geneticists have learned to concentrate most of the growth in the breast muscle. Today's eight week old chickens carry seven times more breast muscle than nine-week old chickens of twenty-five years ago.(10) This accelerated growth comes at a very high cost to the chickens: it causes crippling:

About 90% of broiler chickens have trouble walking; 6% are so badly disabled that, if the cattle laws (cannot sell cow's meat for human consumption if it comes from an animal that was not able to stand prior to slaughter) applied to chicken, their meat could not be sold as human food. (11) This fact is exemplified in an article in "Broiler Industry": "Skeletal disorders are common. Many of these animals crouch or hobble about in pain on flawed feet and legs." (12) Never to be left in the lurch, one poultry study informs farmers that feeding chicks every other day significantly reduces deformities. (13) Researchers fear that chickens will lose their ability to reproduce naturally, which has already happened with turkeys: thanks to genetic manipulation emphasizing ever-bigger turkey breasts, domestic turkeys cannot mate naturally, they must be artificial inseminated. Rapid growth also undercuts the immune system's ability to fight off disease, a hurdle overcome by administering drugs to keep infection at bay.

Broilers fetch a price according to their weight, not according to their health, so their diet is selected purely for its ability to maximize their weight and minimize cost. "Scientific American" featured an article entitled: "Poultry Production": "diet almost totally foreign to any food it ever found in nature. Its feed is a product of the laboratory." Over 90% of today's chickens are fed arsenic compounds. Other reports have noted animals being fed everything from newspaper to their own droppings. (14) As well, during the seven or eight weeks the birds are in the sheds, no effort is made to change the litter or remove the birds' droppings. As a result, air becomes charged with ammonia, dust, and microorganisms which has damaging effects on the birds' lungs.

The industry's healthy solution is exemplified in "Broiler Industry": "We've been accused of selling a chicken with less flavor than the 'old-time' chicken…Attempts are being made at overcoming the flavor problem by injection." (15)

• "Poultry Digest": increasing # of chickens suffer from "Caged Layer Fatigue": withdrawal of minerals from their bones and muscles" This results in an eventual inability to stand. (16)
• A staggering percentage of chickens contract cancer. A government report found that over 90% of the chickens from most of the flocks in this country are infected with chicken cancer (Leukosis)! (17)
• In an examination of 1324 chickens that had died during transport 47% died from congestive heart failure. (18)
• A phenomenon known as "piling" is often fatal. The chickens become nervous, jittery creatures: any sudden disturbance and they rush to safety by piling on top of each other: "smother each other in a pitiful of heap of bodies" (one poultry farmer describes). (19)
• A mysterious cause of death: "acute death syndrome" ADS - it has been shown to kill an average of roughly 2% of broiler flocks in Canada and Australia: loss of balance, violent flapping, and strong muscular contractions prior to death. (20)
• Crippling and deformities force producers to kill an additional 1-2% of broiler chickens. (21)
• One result of the accelerated growth rate is a bizarre "flip-over": birds' hearts are so full of blood clots that they literally flip over and die.
• At the age of 6 or 7 weeks, producers rush their chickens to slaughter even though they could grow even bigger because around the 6th week, birds start dying of heart attacks, infection and other diseases brought about by rapid growth. (22)

Today in the US alone, 102 million broilers/table chickens are slaughtered each week after being reared in highly automated factory like plants. (23)