Broiler breeder chickens — the parents of commercial meat chickens — are kept on severe feed restriction to prevent health problems from their fast-growth genetics. This causes significant welfare harm.
Broiler breeder welfare represents one of the most ethically complex situations in animal agriculture. The birds selected to parent commercial meat chickens carry genetic traits that cause fatal health problems if fed freely. To keep them alive and reproductively viable, they are kept in a state of chronic hunger — fed a fraction of what they would eat given free access. Behavioural studies confirm that food-restricted broiler breeders are chronically frustrated and display persistent hunger-related behaviours. The solution requires addressing the root cause: selecting parent stock from slower-growing breeds that do not require feed restriction. This is a technical change that requires industry-wide coordination and consumer pressure.