Ostriches are farmed globally for meat, leather, and feathers. Their welfare in captive farming systems raises distinct challenges given their size, speed, and complex social structure.
Ostriches present unusual welfare challenges because their size and speed make them genuinely dangerous to handle, which in turn creates pressure to use physical restraint methods that cause significant stress. Feather plucking from live ostriches — still practiced in some operations — causes pain and significant distress. The birds' natural behaviours include running over large territories, complex pair bonding, and communal nesting — behaviours that intensive farming systems cannot accommodate. Slaughter welfare is a particular concern: ostriches in abattoirs frequently injure themselves and workers due to fear responses, and stunning methods require greater operator skill than for conventional poultry. Welfare assessment tools developed for commercial poultry are often not validated for ostriches, leaving significant knowledge gaps.