Chickens are a diverse group of intelligent, communicative and emotional individuals. They form tight bonds with others in their flocks, and create social groups amongst themselves. Chickens do not all get along, however, and chickens will hold grudges against others for various reasons. In nature, chickens enjoy preening their beautiful feathers, dust bathing, roosting, scratching in the grass and chatting with each other. Without interference, chickens can live between eight to ten years.

Hens, female chickens, are amazing mothers. They select and create safe protective nests for their young, and warm their eggs by removing their own feathers on their belly. Communication between the chicks and their mother begins in the egg, with the chick chirping and the mother responding by shifting her body accordingly to keep the chick at the optimal temperature. Mother hens will fight to protect the lives of their chicks, just as most parents would do for their children.

Chickens use over 30 unique vocalizations to communicate with each other, and are able to express many things including excitement, fear, the presence of food, or mourning the loss of a friend or family member. Chickens are so emotional that they often go through a lengthy mourning period after such a loss and will pace, call out, or spend time in the area where their loved one passed away. Their empathy even goes beyond their own kind; chickens have been known to adopt orphaned babies of other species such as kittens.

Once they get to know you and develop trust, chickens will often seek out human affection, as they do here at the sanctuary. They enjoy being petted and laying in a warm lap. If you can coax them to sleep, chickens even experience REM cycles like humans. When comfortable, they will make a sound similar to the purr of a cat. It is a privilege to gain the trust of a chicken.

Chickens raised for meat or eggs experience none of the natural pleasures that they would normally enjoy. 50 billion chickens are slaughtered annually, globally, making them the most exploited species of land animal that exists. That means 10,000 chickens are slaughtered every 5 seconds.

Chickens Used for Eggs

Chickens that are raised for eggs, if they are male, do not experience much life at all. Male chicks are considered useless to the egg industry because they cannot produce eggs and they do not become large enough to produce a “desirable” amount of meat. In fact, their lives are confusing and traumatic; they hatch and chirp for their mothers but are sent to an immediate slaughter. The methods of slaughter for these babies includes being dumped into a large grinding machine, suffocation or electrocution. Approximately 260 million male chicks in the U.S. alone are slaughtered this way each year.

Hens raised for egg production endure a prolonged torturous life. Most egg-laying birds are housed in enormous warehouses and are locked in “battery cages”. Battery cages are 2 x 3 foot cages that can contain sometimes eight to ten birds. It is estimated that 95% of birds in the egg laying industry are housed in battery cages. Without much room to move, let alone spread their wings, the cages are also all stacked upon each other, which allows the waste to drop down to each cage below. This creates a filthy, stressful and confusing environment for these intelligent birds.

Due to the close confines, coupled with the stress created by this environment, chickens will often act out by attacking one another or plucking out their own feathers. To combat this, farmers will slice off their extremely sensitive beaks with a hot blade when they are just chicks. This is a process called “debeaking” and it causes extreme lifelong discomfort for the chicken, if she survives the procedure.

During their short lives, hens in this industry are subjected to multiple cruel practices that encourage increased egg laying, including being subjected to 23 hours of light a day and being starved for nearly two weeks at a time. In the wild, hens used to lay 12 to 15 eggs per year. Today, industry hens have been so modified through selective breeding and genetic manipulation that they are laying 250 to 300 eggs per year. Due to this taxing process, coupled with the living conditions, hens become “spent” after only about two years by developing significant reproductive issues.

At that time the hens are no longer considered valuable, and they are roughly removed from their cages by their legs, a process which frequently results in death or damaged limbs, and stuffed into transportation cages on a transport truck. Millions of hens die during the transportation each year, succumbing to weather conditions, dehydration, or previous injuries.

The hens are then brought to the slaughterhouse. Although The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (P.L. 85-765; 7 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) was enacted in 1958, it does not include birds, which has been affirmed by the USDA. Therefore, all chickens are exempt from any protection provided by the Humane Slaughter Act.

Chickens Used for Meat

Chickens raised for meat, or “broiler” chickens, endure a truncated but painful life before they are slaughtered. Broiler chickens are housed in enormous warehouses filled with hundreds of thousands of other birds. They are usually so overcrowded, that they are often forced to trample over one another. The conditions are filthy; the concentration of ammonia not only causes disastrous respiratory issues, but can also burn the chickens’ skin as they are forced to lay in the waste. These warehouses are also breeding grounds for infection, and have been linked to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of illnesses, including the common flu.

Broiler chickens have been subjected to human manipulations over many generations to induce abnormal weight gain in specific muscle tissues. This rapid weight gain causes havoc to the chicken’s body – damaging internal organs, creating broken limbs or deformities. If a chicken becomes immobile due to their weight, they will often starve or die of dehydration as a result.

This genetic manipulation means that at just six to eight weeks old, these chickens have grown to “market” weight and it is time for them to be sent to slaughter. At this age, they are still just babies and are not fully developed. The workers collect the chickens in a dangerous process that causes injury or death, and toss them into cages on the transport truck.

They are then brought to the slaughterhouse, and again, although The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (P.L. 85-765; 7 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) was enacted in 1958, it does not include birds, which has been affirmed by the USDA. Therefore, all chickens are exempt from any protection provided by the Humane Slaughter Act.

Protecting Lives

Making the decision to avoid contributing to the egg or chicken meat industry goes a long way to protecting the lives of many unique individual chickens. By not creating the demand, residents like Tracey, Izzy and Roy have the opportunity to bask in the sunlight, and dust bathe to their hearts’ content.

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