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Meat-typeChickens – Often called

Broilers

Genetically selected for fast growth, broiler chickens are slaughtered when only 6 or 7 weeks (a healthy chicken’s lifespan is as many years) and never experience maternal care

A cruel mess – this is how Professor John Webster of Bristol University has describe the broiler industry. FAWN invites you to take a close look at how today’ ‘healthy’ chicken meat is produced.

Above: Under natural conditions the mother hen is fiercely protective of her chicks, sheltering them under her wings for their first two months of life. Photo: David Clegg

A Short Life and a Brutal One: Mass-produced chickens (around 99% of the market) spend their short lives in huge windowless sheds. Motherless, the chicks must fend for themselves from day one.

Above: Six week old broiler chickens.

Those that fail to find their way to food andwater points are called ‘starve-outs’. Towards the end of thecycle, some broilers are so crippled they cannot walk, so thesetoo die from starvation and dehydration. Selective breeding for’greedy’ birds, and the addition of growth-promoters to the feed,have ensured an end-product twice as heavy at seven weeks aschickens should be – and were, before the poultry and drugindustries moved in. The result? PROFITS for producers andSUFFERING for the sick and deformed birds.

Squalid Conditions. An attemptto collect the ‘deads’ should be a daily task. A poultry workerhas described it as follows: ‘This has to be done every daybecause of the heat and the way the birds are packed so tight.When you pick up a dead bird it’s quite common for them to be soputrid that they are just bags of bone and fluid’. Lincolnshire Free Press, 5 Oct ’87.

When birds are reared together in such huge numbers (45,000 in one shed is typical of new units) proper welfare inspections are impossible. Many dead and dying birds go unnoticed, to decompose in the litter on the shed floor. Heat stress is a major cause of death. Botulism has occurred in cattle fed or bedded on used chicken litter.

Right: Living birds peck at the dead. Photo: Oxford Environmental Films

Diseases Old and New Take Their Toll.Diseases (including heart attacks and fatty liver and kidneysyndromes) kill many young birds. Now, viral diseases likeGumboro (this destroys the immune system – it’s been called’chicken’ AIDS’) and chicken anaemia agent (CAA) have taken theirtoll, often pushing mortality figures well into two figures.(Yes, Gumboro has been known to kill 10-20 thousand chickens inone shed alone!) Ascites provides another major headache for anindustry which has produced a bird with masses of profitableflesh, but organs so immature they cannot function effectively.Ascites results in an internal accumulation of yellow orblood-stained fluid. It’s a disease associated with the highoxygen demand of rapid gr owth in the modem broiler, combinedwith restricted space for blood flow through the capillaries ofthe lung’. (Poultry Diseases, Ed. W Jordan, Baliere Tindall 1990)

Painful Afflictions. Millions of broiler chickens develop painful ulcerated feet and hock burns (these are like bed sores in humans). High ammonia levels can cause blindness. All this suffering occurs while broilers are mere baby birds.

Below: Supermarket chicken showing hock burns. Photo., Chickens’Lib.

Above: Chickens with ulcerated feet sold for human consumption. Photo.. Chickens’Lib

A Cruel End. Catching,transport and slaughter all cause trauma and pain to broilers.Soft young bones break, and joints (often already painfullydeformed) become dislocated when birds are caught. Carriedseveral in each hand by teams of ‘catchers’ working at top speed,they’re thrown or crammed into crates or modules (drawer-likecontainers) to be loaded onto lorries. Often legs and wings aretrapped, and heads crushed, before the journey to slaughterbegins. ‘Chicken pieces’ (those handy items so popular atbuffets, barbecues etc.) may have been salvaged from injured orsick birds, having previously borne a terrible weight ofsuffering in the gloom of a filthy broiler shed. As with spenthen slaughter, a ‘humane’ kill is never guaranteed, and it’s beensuggested by pou ltry researchers that many chickens areinadequately stunned, and feel the pain of neck cutting. Again,some enter the scalding tank alive, perhaps conscious

Future Deprivations?. Adisturbing picture is emerging of novel ways of ‘papering overthe cracks’ of the disastrous broiler industry. Feed restrictionfor the young birds has been recommended as a way of minimisingdiseases associated with unnaturally rapid growth and poorenvironmental conditions. ‘With controlled feeding of broilersbecoming a growing trend it is important to sell it as a welfarefriendly management style to the general public. This meansgetting the right message across which is “controllinggrowth” not “restricted feed’… there is obviouspotential in controlling the growth of broilers, but it needs theright terminology.’ (John Farrant, Editor, Poultry World,November 1994) .In plain English, hungry broilers are gettingtheir exercise foraging in faeces and litter for non-existentfeed! A leading poultry scientist has suggested caging broilers(this already happens in some parts of the world) as a ‘solution’to some welfare problems. The modern broiler is a genetic freak,doomed to all manner of physical and mental ills, all the resultof:

• Ruthless selection for heavy birds

• Nutritional programmes and drugs promoting rapid growth

• Environmental factors (poor ventilation, dim lighting, filthy litter, lack of interesting surroundings to encourage movement).

The poor health status of the modern meat-typechicken is ‘man made’ and amounts to cruelty, knowinglyinflicted in the name of economics and profit.

Broiler Breeders – the Parent Stock.Hidden well away, and generally forgotten, are the millions ofbreeders supplying semen and eggs for the chicken meat industry.Kept in broiler sheds in their hundreds or thousands, their livesare stressful, especially for the hens, when frequent matingsresult in severe feather wear. Ammonia levels in the sheds may bevery high, causing blindness. Many breeding broilers aredebeaked, to minimise damage from aggression, and this may causelife-long pain. Worn-out Breeders go into Canned Soups and BabyFoods

Feed Restriction. Feed isseverely restricted. Broilers have been specifically bred for’greediness’ as this suits the broiler industry for those birdskilled at 6-7 weeks. But if breeders were fed ad lib they’dsuffer from disastrously low fertility and high mortality inlater life. To ‘solve’ this problem they are kept on minimalrations that leave them so hungry they peck at empty troughs andthe shed walls, eat faeces and litter, and drink large quantitiesof water in a futile attempt to assuage their appetites. Sinceexcessive drinking produces wet droppings (then soggy litter) thewater supply may be restricted too. This regime lasts for theirfirst few months of life. By any normal reckoning, such treatmentis cruel and should be prohibited. Even when the degree of feedrestriction is less extreme (after week 20) breeders are keptvery hungry, to ensure maximum fertility/profitability. Thepronounced head shaking sometimes seen among female breeders isprobably caused by the stress of constant hunger and unnaturallyfrequent mating. . At the end of their peak semen and eggproducing days, broiler breeders are slaughtered and processedinto pies, soups and baby foods etc. Many are culled during thebreeding cycle, since only the most productive birds are kept.

Above: Only a few weeks old – victims ofthe modern broiler system. Photo.. ChrisJames

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TURKEYS; featuring:

A Turkey’s Own Story:

TheDrugs Don’t Work – Factory Farming’s Threat to Human Health

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