The welfare problems of standard commercial broiler breeds - leg disorders, cardiovascular failure, and poor welfare - can be significantly reduced by using slower-growing breeds. Consumer demand is driving this transition.
Broiler breed welfare is the most impactful single lever in chicken welfare improvement. The welfare problems of standard commercial breeds are not primarily caused by poor management - they are built into the genetics. Animals selected for extreme growth rates develop bodies their physiology cannot sustainably support: cardiovascular systems struggle to supply rapidly growing tissue, skeletal development cannot keep pace with muscle mass, and leg structures bear loads they were not designed for. Switching to slower-growing breeds that develop at rates more compatible with physiological sustainability eliminates the majority of these welfare problems. The Better Chicken Commitment represents the most significant coordinated corporate welfare commitment in the history of farm animal advocacy, with major food companies committed to welfare-criteria-meeting breeds.