The overlooked welfare crisis among broiler breeder chickens, who face chronic hunger as a management strategy to prevent obesity in birds bred for rapid growth.
Broiler breeder welfare represents one of the most ethically uncomfortable situations in modern animal farming: a system in which a welfare problem at one level of the supply chain (fast-growing broiler genetics causing obesity) creates a different welfare problem at another level (chronic hunger in the parent birds). The industry has created a situation where no good option exists within the current genetic framework — only a choice between different forms of suffering. The solution requires upstream change: transitioning commercial broiler production toward slower-growing genetics that do not require restrictive feeding of parent birds. This is both a welfare and an ethical imperative that the industry has the means to address.