Broiler chickens - who's in your nuggets?

More chickens are killed and eaten than any other animal. Anyone who has ever met chickens kept as companion animals knows that they are intelligent and inquisitive – and are also feisty and very far from being ‘chicken’.

There are two types of farmed chickens, ‘broilers‘ raised for meat and ‘laying hens’ who are used to produce eggs.

Broiler chickens are crammed into dark, dingy sheds, often 45,000 at a time. They are bred to reach their slaughter-weight in just six weeks. They put on so much weight, so quickly that their still-developing legs often buckle under the strain. Access to food and water points then becomes even more difficult, as the birds are unable to force themselves through the crush of other chickens. Weaker and sicker birds collapse and die from thirst and hunger.

The cramped conditions may also lead to unnatural behaviour such as pecking at each other. Scientists think that they do this because their natural instinct is to peck the ground for food. In a packed shed shoulder to shoulder with other birds this is impossible and some will peck each other instead. As a consequence, broiler birds are covered in wounds and bald patches.

Inside the sheds, the litter that lines the floor is not changed for the duration of the birds’ lives. They are forced to stand and sleep in their own excrement and urine, which covers their feet, causing ulcers and sores and often burns away the feathers on their chests. Because of the terrible conditions, bugs and germs run rife. Farmers put antibiotics in the food in an attempt to fight off disease and infection.

The birds are sent off to slaughter when only six weeks old, to be made into nuggets and other chicken meat products for people’s plates.

The life and death of turkeys is virtually identical to that of chickens.

See the info on laying hens.

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© Animal Aid 2012