The age at which farm animals are slaughtered has profound welfare implications. Most animals are killed long before their natural lifespan, raising questions about the welfare of truncated lives.
The truncated lives of farm animals represent a welfare question that is rarely framed explicitly: does the shortness of an animal's life matter morally, distinct from the welfare experienced during that life? A broiler chicken slaughtered at 5 weeks has experienced less suffering than one slaughtered at 9 weeks in current systems. But the deprivation of a life that could last years raises questions about what farm animals lose through early slaughter. The immediate welfare priority is ensuring that the lives that are lived are as good as possible. The deeper philosophical question of whether cutting a potential 10-year life to 5 weeks causes harm beyond any suffering within those weeks is one that animal ethics takes seriously even if animal agriculture does not.