Ostriches are farmed for meat, leather, and feathers on every continent. Their size and behavioral needs create specific welfare challenges in commercial settings.
Ostrich farming welfare is a relatively unstudied area despite significant production volumes. These are large, stress-reactive birds that evolved for life in open African savanna — the managed production environments they inhabit frequently provide inadequate space and complexity for their behavioral needs. The acute stress-reactivity of ostriches — where capture and handling can cause death from capture myopathy — creates both welfare and practical management challenges. Live feather plucking, practiced to obtain tail feathers for the fashion industry, causes demonstrable pain and stress. Slaughter welfare is technically complex because standard poultry stunning methods do not work well on ostriches. The welfare science and standards for ostriches are underdeveloped relative to their commercial importance, representing a gap that welfare advocates and researchers should address.