Ostriches are the world's largest birds, farmed primarily in South Africa for meat, leather, and feathers. Their welfare in intensive and semi-intensive production systems raises specific concerns around stress sensitivity, feather plucking, and long-distance transport to slaughter.
Ostrich welfare reflects the species' unique physiology: as prey animals that evolved to flee across open savanna, ostriches have an extreme acute stress response that can itself be lethal. Intensive handling, confinement, and transport trigger this response, meaning that welfare-poor management literally kills some animals. Feather plucking from live birds is a recognised welfare harm — the feather quill is vascularised when growing, and removal is painful. The luxury market for ostrich feathers and leather has limited welfare considerations, and consumer pressure for higher-welfare production is minimal compared to mainstream farmed species. Most ostriches are slaughtered at 10-14 months; the period between placement and slaughter spans the majority of their life, making rearing welfare — particularly handling frequency and quality — critically important.