Ostriches are farmed globally for meat, leather, and feathers; their specific behavioral needs including vast ranging requirements and social structure require welfare-aware management.
Ostrich farming occupies an unusual welfare space as a farmed species with significant space and behavioral requirements that commercial operations struggle to meet. Their rapid flight response to perceived threats means handling and transport are particularly welfare-costly, with high stress mortality during these events. The feather industry's practice of live-plucking (pulling feathers from live birds) causes significant acute pain and injury; this practice is banned in higher-welfare certified operations but persists elsewhere. Space requirements for adequate welfare significantly exceed what intensive systems provide.