{"id":124755,"date":"2010-06-24T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peta.org\/issues\/chickens\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T02:03:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T09:03:31","slug":"chickens","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/issues\/animals-used-for-food\/factory-farming\/chickens\/","title":{"rendered":"Chickens Used for Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chickens are arguably the most abused animals on the planet. In the United States, approximately 9 billion chickens are killed for their flesh each year, and 305\u00a0million hens are used for their eggs. The vast majority of these animals spend their lives in total confinement\u2014from the moment they hatch until the day they are\u00a0killed.<\/p>\n

More chickens are raised and killed for food than all other land animals combined, yet not a single federal law protects them from abuse\u2014even though most Americans say that they would support such a law.<\/p>\n\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChicks \u2013 Every year in the United States, 9 billion chickens raised for their flesh and 305 million chickens raised for their eggs begin their lives when they hatch along with thousands of other chicks inside giant incubators. Only a few days after birth, they’re crammed into shipping crates and sent to factory farms. They will never meet their parents.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBroiler Sheds \u2014 With tens of thousands of chicks packed into each building, the sheds become increasingly crowded as the animals grow larger. Chickens often have to walk on top of one another\u2014and over the bodies of others who have died\u2014to get to food and water. Chickens function best in small flocks with fewer than 20 individuals, which allows each bird to find his or her spot in the pecking order. In crowded groups of tens of thousands, however, no such social order is possible, and in their frustration, chickens peck at one another, causing injury and death.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMortality \u2014 Many chickens on factory farms get sick and die because of the cramped and filthy conditions. Instead of giving birds more space and a cleaner living area, farmers mix large quantities of antibiotics into the birds’ feed in an attempt to stave off disease, but many of the birds still die. The filth and bacterial contamination of factory farms and slaughterhouses even finds its way onto consumers’ plates: A U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that 87 percent of chicken carcasses are contaminated with E. coli bacteria. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEgg Industry \u2014 Male chicks are worthless to the egg industry because they don’t lay eggs and they’re too small to be used for flesh, so every year, 200 million of them are tossed into trash bags to suffocate or are thrown\u2014while still alive\u2014into high-speed grinders called “macerators.”\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBattery Cages \u2014 Like all chickens raised for eggs, these hens have had large portions of their sensitive beaks cut off, and they’ll spend their entire lives in a filthy, cramped wire cage. Each hen has an area smaller than a sheet of notebook paper in which to stand and doesn’t have enough space to spread even one wing. The cages are stacked on top of one another, so excrement from hens in higher cages often falls on those below. Ammonia and the stench of feces hang heavy in the air, and disease is rampant in these filthy, cramped conditions.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tManure Pits \u2014 Hens are kept in cages suspended above enormous manure pits. Most farms rarely clean the pits, so the excrement builds up in the barns, causing skin infections and respiratory diseases.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t