The tidy plastic-wrapped packages of chicken in the grocery store hide an agony unimaginable to decent people. Crammed by the tens of thousands into stinking sheds, “broiler” chickens never scratch in the dirt or preen their feathers in the warmth of the sunshine. Painfully misshapen legs buckle under the massive weight of their bodies because they’ve been bred to grow too large.
But even worse than a broiler chicken’s life is the torture of the broiler breeder—the roosters and hens who produce the chickens eaten by people. The birds suffer starvation, mutilation and overcrowding.
Factory farmers often slice off the chicks’ tender beaks with a searing hot blade and roosters’ toes and spurs are cut off without any anesthetics. The chicks will be shoved into sheds crowded with other chickens. Frustrated and angry, they peck and fight with each other. Chopping off body parts to prevent injury is cheaper than giving them more space. Even the roosters’ combs are sometimes cut off in the mistaken belief that it will prevent fighting.
 Broiler breeders are starved every day of their lives. Selectively bred to produce offspring that are big enough to slaughter in just six weeks, they would grow grotesquely huge and die in just a few months if allowed to eat all they wanted. Rather than breeding a slower-growing bird who takes longer—and costs more—to reach slaughter age, factory farmers often use the “skip-a-day” diet—the breeders are fed only small portions of food every other day, as little as 25% of what they would normally eat. From birth until slaughter, chickens suffer chronic unrelieved hunger. They peck endlessly at the filthy litter and at their own feathers, preening themselves to baldness, trying to find something to fill up the emptiness in their stomachs.
 Hens are allowed to eat a little more than roosters because they need the extra calories to produce eggs. To keep roosters from fitting their heads through the wires of the females’ feeding troughs, plastic sticks called “Nozbonz” are shoved through one side of the nose and out the other.
The tender nasal membranes swell and drip blood, and there is no relief. Starving chickens could satisfy themselves a little bit by drinking more water, but factory farmers figure that this will mean increased urination and wetter litter. Rather than cleaning the litter more often, they take away water right after feeding, adding chronic thirst to the hunger and pain.
 Factory farmers keep the starving, crowded birds in the dark for up to 18 hours a day so that they can manipulate growth. Studies of chickens in natural surroundings show that they bask in the sunshine yet even this simple pleasure is denied them. Many go blind or suffer excruciating detached retinas.
After 16 months, chickens are roughly grabbed by one leg, slung upside down and stuffed into crates. They are trucked for hours or days without food, water or rest, then they are hung upside down and their necks are dragged across a blade, often while still conscious.
| FINALLY, A TRAUMATIC DEATH |
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 Photo: © Indexstock
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You Can Help
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 Stick up for chickens
• Please switch to a healthy, humane vegan diet. Try delicious faux chicken products like Yves’ Chick’n Burger, Gardenburger Chik ’n Grill and Worthington’s Chic-Ketts. Order a free vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com or by calling 1-888-VEG-FOOD.
• Please urge the National Council of Chain Restaurants, a trade group for most of the large grocery and restaurant chains in the U.S., to use their influence to improve the treatment of broiler breeders.
Please write polite letters to:
Terrie Dort, President National Council of Chain Restaurants
325 Seventh St. N.W.
Ste. 1100
Washington, DC 20004
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Broiler breeders are starved every day of their lives. Selectively bred to produce offspring that are big enough to slaughter in just six weeks, they would grow grotesquely huge and die in just a few months if allowed to eat all they wanted. Rather than breeding a slower-growing bird who takes longer—and costs more—to reach slaughter age, factory farmers often use the “skip-a-day” diet—the breeders are fed only small portions of food every other day, as little as 25% of what they would normally eat. From birth until slaughter, chickens suffer chronic unrelieved hunger. They peck endlessly at the filthy litter and at their own feathers, preening themselves to baldness, trying to find something to fill up the emptiness in their stomachs.
Hens are allowed to eat a little more than roosters because they need the extra calories to produce eggs. To keep roosters from fitting their heads through the wires of the females’ feeding troughs, plastic sticks called “Nozbonz” are shoved through one side of the nose and out the other.
Factory farmers keep the starving, crowded birds in the dark for up to 18 hours a day so that they can manipulate growth. Studies of chickens in natural surroundings show that they bask in the sunshine yet even this simple pleasure is denied them. Many go blind or suffer excruciating detached retinas.
