Broiler breeder chickens — the parents of commercial meat chickens — face a specific welfare crisis from feed restriction imposed to prevent obesity in their fast-growing offspring.
Broiler breeder welfare represents a cruel paradox: birds bred for rapid growth must be chronically hungry throughout their lives to remain reproductively viable. A bird selected for extreme growth appetite will overeat and become infertile if fed to satiation. The entire broiler meat industry rests on a breeder population that experiences lifelong hunger as a welfare-compromised foundation. This upstream welfare problem is largely invisible to consumers and welfare certifiers focused on the broiler chicken itself.