Turkeys are among the most intensively farmed and welfare-compromised of all commercially raised animals. This page examines their welfare and what better practice looks like.
Turkey welfare shares many problems with broiler chicken welfare but receives less public attention and advocacy. Modern commercial turkeys have been selectively bred to the point where their bodies are physiologically dysfunctional: they cannot reproduce naturally due to excessive breast muscle, they struggle to walk at market weight, and they experience chronic cardiovascular and respiratory stress. Unlike chickens, turkeys have been largely absent from corporate welfare campaigns. The conditions of commercial turkey production — concrete floors, low light, extreme stocking density, no enrichment — cause chronic suffering across hundreds of millions of birds per year.