Are chickens raised for meat treated humanely?

The objection

“Chickens are farmed in huge numbers, sure, but it’s quick and efficient, and the birds are looked after. What’s the harm?”

The answer

Around 78.5 billion chickens were slaughtered for meat in 2024, about nine in ten of the 86 billion cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and ducks killed that year, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures [1]. Most of them are raised the same way: Knowles and colleagues (2008) described broilers throughout the world as confined for life in high-density housing and grown from hatch to slaughter weight in about 40 days [2]. The European Food Safety Authority’s animal welfare panel (2023) named breeding for fast growth and high stocking density among the six major hazards to these birds [3].

How old are meat chickens when they are killed?

Most meat chickens are killed between four and seven weeks old. EFSA’s panel (2023) put slaughter in the EU at 28 to 42 days, with the typical fast-growing bird killed at around 37 days and 2 to 2.5kg, well before it reaches sexual maturity [3]. US birds are kept a little longer: industry figures from the National Chicken Council put the average in 2025 at 47.5 days and a live weight of 6.63lb, about 3kg [4]. Broilers left to eat freely beyond slaughter age, the panel notes, become obese and develop heart and leg problems [3].

Why do so many broiler chickens go lame?

Broiler chickens go lame mainly because they have been bred for very fast growth and a heavy breast. Growth rates in commercial broilers quadrupled in the second half of the 20th century, mainly through genetic selection, and the breast muscle grew out of proportion to the rest of the bird (EFSA, 2023) [3]. The panel links that growth directly to leg and skeletal disorders and to heart disease, which can kill, and notes that lame birds that stay by the feeder instead of walking to water can die of dehydration [3]. Knowles and colleagues’ survey for the UK government (2008) scored the walking of about 51,000 birds in 176 flocks [2]. At a mean age of 40 days, 27.6% walked badly enough to score 3 or worse on a six-point gait scale, a level at which studies with painkillers suggest birds can be in pain, and 3.3% were almost unable to walk, despite culling meant to remove the worst cases [2]. Fifteen years later EFSA said the prevalence of lameness in fast-growing birds near the end of rearing can still be high, and among its urgent recommendations was a cap on growth of 50g a day, the rate it uses to divide fast-growing chickens from slower-growing ones [3].

How much space does a meat chicken get?

By the time it reaches slaughter weight, a meat chicken kept at the highest density EU law allows has less floor than a sheet of A4 paper. EU law (2007) caps stocking at 33kg of bird per square metre and lets member states allow 39kg, then 42kg, on farms that meet extra conditions [5], and EFSA says the main producing countries stock at 33 to 42kg [3]. Canada’s code of practice (2016) says density “must not normally exceed” 31kg per square metre and allows up to 38kg where set conditions are kept [6]. At 42kg, a bird of 2 to 2.5kg has about 480 to 600 square centimetres, against 624 for a sheet of A4 (our calculation). EFSA’s panel (2023) drew on expert judgement and a model of the space birds need for their essential behaviours. It concluded, with 66 to 100% certainty, that above 11kg per square metre foot lesions get worse, walking ability declines and the birds have too little room to fully meet their behavioural needs, and it put that limit among its urgent recommendations [3]. Footage filmed inside a South Australian broiler farm in 2011 shows birds almost ready for slaughter.

Are chickens covered by humane slaughter laws?

US federal humane slaughter law leaves chickens out, while EU law covers them but still lets conscious birds be hung in shackles before they are stunned [11]. The US killed about 9.6 billion chickens in federally inspected plants in 2024 (USDA figures) [7], yet the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act names cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine and other livestock, and makes no mention of birds [8]. The USDA itself says there is “no specific federal humane handling and slaughter statute for poultry” [9]. Instead, under a food-safety law, live birds must be handled “consistent with good commercial practices”, which the USDA says means treating them humanely, because mistreated birds are more likely to be bruised or to die before slaughter and so to yield adulterated meat [9]. An NGO estimate from The Humane League Labs found that 92% of US chickens killed in 2019 were stunned with electricity [10]. In that method live birds are hung upside down by their legs in metal shackles on a moving line, and a current is passed from an electrified water bath through their heads and bodies. EFSA’s experts (2019) found that the shackling causes pain and fear, probably more so in lame birds, and that the low currents typical in the US might immobilise birds without making them unconscious, leaving them able to feel the neck cut [11]. The EU’s 2009 slaughter regulation sets minimum currents for the water bath, well above those typical in the US [11].