Feather pecking and cannibalism in commercial poultry represent major welfare problems affecting millions of birds, with the behaviors driven by management failures rather than inherent bird aggression.
Feather pecking welfare involves two distinct harms: the direct harm of feather damage and tissue injury to victims, and the harm of beak trimming performed as a preventive measure that addresses a symptom rather than the underlying cause. Both harms are substantially addressable through management improvements that provide appropriate environmental complexity. The framing of feather pecking as a behavioral problem to be controlled through beak trimming has obscured the welfare management failures that create the conditions for pecking to escalate. Facilities providing adequate foraging enrichment, appropriate light management, optimal stocking density, and good litter quality routinely maintain birds with intact beaks and low feather damage rates. The evidence base for management-based prevention of feather pecking is strong enough that continued reliance on beak trimming as the primary control strategy is increasingly difficult to justify.