Broiler chickens represent the single largest welfare concern in animal agriculture by numbers. An estimated 70 billion are raised and slaughtered globally each year under conditions that cause widespread suffering.
Broiler chicken welfare represents a moral emergency of staggering scale. The number of individual animals experiencing chronic pain, injury, and distress in commercial production at any given moment exceeds the entire human population many times over. Leg disorders cause pain with every movement; contact dermatitis causes burning skin lesions from wet ammonia-saturated litter; fast growth causes cardiovascular stress. These are not edge cases but majority experiences for these birds. The Better Chicken Commitment — signed by hundreds of food companies — commits to slower-growing breeds, increased space, enrichment, and controlled atmosphere stunning. Meaningful welfare improvement at scale requires both consumer pressure and corporate commitment to enforce these standards.