Shocking facts about chicken farming and why we need to change the industry now.
Informative blog adapted and customized from our International office as per Indian market facts
1. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird, but unlike other birds which have freedom, most chickens are kept in overcrowded sheds. Here they’re packed in with tens of thousands of other chickens, and suffer a staggeringly short life
2. Meat chickens bred in factory farms are slaughtered after six weeks, however, in higher welfare farming conditions, chickens are likely to be slaughtered at an older age.
3. Two thousand meat chickens are slaughtered every second around the world – and out of a staggering 60 billion farmed every year, 40 billion of these are factory grown
4. Globally, 70% of meat chickens are raised in intensive factory farming systems and will have more space in the oven than when they were alive.
5. Chickens form complex social groups and communicate using over 30 types of calls - a life in factory farming, where they are unable to display many natural behaviours, is no life for them.
6. Living naturally, chickens could do the things they enjoy, for example foraging for food or dust-bathing. But the majority living in factory farms don’t even have enough room to fully stretch their wings
7. The average number of chickens farmed for meat is increasing, with those slaughtered per year in India was planned to be 4.20 million tonnes in 2020 compared to 3.3 million tonnes in 2015-16 but then covid-19 hit the industry followed by bird flu
8. Most meat chickens lead a miserable life in an intensive factory environment exacerbated by fast growth rates leading to health problems such as weak bones, leg injuries and breathing difficulties
9. Rapid growth rates are commonplace for meat chickens. India factory-grown chickens are expected to reach 2.8 kilos on average, in only 42 days which is an average daily growth rate of 66g. A slower-growing, less intensively reared bird would have around 30%+ more time to reach a similar weight.
10. Till 2019 the per capita consumption of broiler meat in India was 3.35kg per person which was very low to China with 10.5kg per person and we need to stop here before it exceeds much further and leads to the worst for these animals that will also adversely affect our planet too.
We need to demand a change to make sure their suffering does not continue.
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