Why I don’t eat chicken

I do not eat chicken purely on ethical grounds as I do not want to contribute to the pain and suffering of the broiler chicken. The ancestor of broiler, the Red Jungle Fowl, still found in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, was domesticated about 8,000 years ago for cockfighting, egg production and for food in the form of today’s broiler. This meddling with the process of natural selection has some price to pay and in case of today’s broiler, it is causing a lot of suffering.

A broiler can be up to four times heavier than the jungle fowl and as a result, the growth of the bones and internal organs cannot keep up with the rapid muscular growth. The bones remain weak and at times crack, as they are not strong enough to support the heavy weight. Sometimes, even the ribcage breaks and ribs poke into the heart and animal dies all of a sudden. A broiler is able to gain its full weight which is up to two-and-a-half kilogrammes in six weeks, it important to know that in nature the lifespan of a jungle fowl is about 10 years while a broiler is slaughtered at six weeks.

Husbandry practices associated with intensive broiler housing are also not very conducive to their welfare. There are no perches or nesting material available and there is a high stocking density in these squalid sheds. Various countries have legal limit of birds’ density which is defined by weight per square metre; Pakistan has no legislation to address the issue. High stocking density leads many problems; the litter becomes wet, there is a high ammonia concentration in the air, humidity etc. As the litter is not changed until a fresh stock of chicks is introduced, it becomes concentrated with urea from their excreta. This high urea concentration is detrimental and at times the feet and legs of broilers get ammonia burns, such burns as called the ‘hock burns’, and are painful for the broilers, further impairing their movement. As a broiler instinctively likes to scratch and peck on the ground, the unavailability of deep litter can redirect this behaviour to some other substrate, which may also be the conspecifics. It is owing to this that the broilers injure each other! The other problems of high stocking density are that broilers do not have enough space to move around, lack of exercise leads to leg problems and lameness. Since they are exposed to light for up to 23 hours a day, there is no rest for them - so that the only thing they can do is feed and gain weight.  Research has shown that prolonged exposure to light depresses the immune system by suppressing the release of immune booster, melatonin by the brain. This makes the birds more vulnerable to diseases, resulting in more administration of antibiotics, which make their way to the bodies of humans who consume mean, thereby reducing human resistance to antibiotics.

Transportation is not a pleasurable event either, imagine how they are handled, lifted upside down, may be held just with one wing! Stuffed into tiny cages one over the other, sometimes they do not even have enough room to sit or even move. During the hot weather they die of heat stroke, if the distance is long do they ever get water?

We cannot ignore the possibilities where a chicken’s feathers are plucked even before it dies and how many butchers use very sharp knives? Moreover, birds, and other animals are regularly slaughtered in front of each other. Many civilians who buy meat from butchers do not know that animals communicate with each other through certain chemicals and when an animal is handled and inflicted with any painful procedure, these chemicals are released which warn the conspecifics of danger, therefore eliciting panic and fear in an entire herd. This leads to another debatable issue whether an animal that is reared in such conditions, tormented in every possible way, slaughtered in front of its fellows can be consumed or not.

The world is getting increasingly conscious of the animal welfare and moving away intensive husbandry to free-range or organic farming practices, where at least an animal is allowed to live a ‘good life’ and eat a healthier diet rather than controversial poultry feed. Pakistan currently has no legislation for animal welfare but we have control over our personal choices.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2014.

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