Scientific research has revealed that chickens are cognitively sophisticated animals with rich social lives, fundamentally challenging the assumptions underlying intensive production.
The cognitive complexity of chickens means intensive confinement causes qualitatively rich forms of deprivation. Social disruption in flocks causes distress measurable through physiological and behavioural indicators. The inability to perform natural behaviours — dustbathing, nesting, foraging — denies chickens the expression of motivations that are evidently important to their subjective state. The assumption that chickens are simple and do not suffer significantly is contradicted by the cognitive science evidence.