Welfare considerations for emus raised commercially for oil, leather, and meat in Australian and North American farms.
Emu farming occupies a welfare grey zone where commercial interest in a novel product has outpaced welfare regulation. Emus are large, intelligent birds with strong instincts for locomotion and environmental exploration. Confinement in typical farming enclosures suppresses these behaviors, causing chronic frustration and the predictable consequences: stereotypic pacing, feather damage, and aggression. The lack of species-specific welfare standards in most countries means that individual farm conditions vary from reasonably adequate to severely deficient. Consumers seeking emu products have little reliable information on which to base welfare-conscious choices.