Chicken on Factory Farms

Chickens Raised for Meat

Chickens raised for meat, called "broilers," are usually kept inside large, dark and cramped buildings for their entire lives. In these buildings, each chicken barely has enough room to move around.

To keep crowded and frustrated chickens from hurting one another, farmers usually cut off the ends of their beaks. This process is called, "de-beaking." Sadly, de-beaking hurts very badly and thousands of chickens die from the tremendous pain that it causes.

"Broilers" are now raised to grow so fast and so large that they are ready to be killed for meat when they are just six weeks old! Growing so fast and so big is not very natural for a chicken, so they end having lots of horrible health problems.

The indoor buildings that the chickens live in are also very unhealthy. Because so many chickens live in them and they are not cleaned very well, the buildings are quickly filled with waste and smell really bad. The buildings are so filthy that the animals become sick very easily.

Chickens are taken to the slaughterhouse in crates stacked on the backs of open trucks. During these trips, they are not protected from bad weather, and many die.

At the slaughterhouse, birds are hung upside down by their legs and are killed without first being stunned.

Chickens Raised for Eggs

Millions of egg-laying chickens, or hens, are kept inside battery cages in the United States. These small wire cages are stacked on top of each other and lined up in rows inside huge buildings.

Each tiny battery cage usually houses at least four chickens. One battery cage building usually houses 80,000 to 100,000 hens.

Battery cages are so small that hens are unable to do much of anything. They cannot dust-bathe, search for food, nest, perch, or stretch. In these cages they really can't move much at all!

Living in battery cages also makes hens very sick. Many of these poor birds suffer from severe feather loss, bruises and cuts from rubbing against the bars of their cages. They also suffer from foot damage caused by standing on wire their whole lives.

Hens on factory farms lay almost 300 eggs each year. In nature they would lay only about 60 eggs each year. Because their poor bodies have to work so hard to lay so many eggs, hens suffer from all kinds of health problems and many even die.

In order to keep stressed out and crowded birds from hurting one another, a portion of most hens' beaks are cut off, usually when they are just a few days old. This process, called "debeaking" is very painful and causes the deaths of many birds.

Even farmers who say their hens are allowed to roam free, or are "free-range" still often keep their hens in very cramped spaces. Some are just housed in cages that are a little larger than battery cages. Because no one is watching out for these hens either, they are often still treated very badly.

Although many people think that egg-laying chickens are not killed, they are. Sadly, once a hen stops laying large numbers of eggs, she is no longer useful to anyone and her life is ended.

Male chicks born to egg-laying hens can't grow fast enough to be used for meat, and because they cannot lay eggs, they are worth nothing to farmers. Most are killed when they are only one or two days old!