What are the animal welfare challenges associated with meat chicken production?

The RSPCA is working to address the animal welfare challenges in meat chicken production by raising standards on farm through RSPCA Certified – our farm animal welfare certification scheme – and by advocating for improvements to the legally required minimum standards for all poultry be that on farm, during transport, or at slaughter.

The significant extent to which the meat chicken industry has implemented the RSPCA Standard for meat chickens from its inception in 2010 to majority uptake in 2026, is clear evidence of the considerable progress that has been made in recent years to improve animal welfare, but there is still more to do:

Meat chickens have been selectively bred to grow and gain weight very quickly, with birds reaching slaughter weight at 4-6 weeks old. The fast growth rate of meat chickens can result in welfare problems such as leg disorders, metabolic disorders, and subsequent higher mortality rates.

The stocking density and housing conditions in which chickens are kept has a significant impact on their welfare. Chickens housed at high stocking densities can have higher mortality rates, are more behaviourally restricted, and can have poorer leg health than meat chickens provided with more space. Housing conditions that provide chickens with inadequate lighting, poor ventilation and air quality, and poor litter quality can lead to serious welfare and health issues. Chickens are naturally motivated to perform behaviours such as ground scratching, ground pecking, perching, dustbathing and foraging. When they are housed in barren environments, that do not accommodate for these highly motivated behaviours, bird welfare can be compromised.

When chickens are weak, sick, injured, unable to walk, or will not recover from a disease or condition, they are euthanased. One of the most common methods of euthanasia for chickens is manual cervical dislocation, however, this method does not result in immediate loss of consciousness and therefore birds may experience pain and distress prior to death. Captive bolt gun devices and carbon dioxide gas killing are two alternative more humane euthanasia methods, but they are not always immediately available and unfortunately also have some associated welfare issues. 

Once chickens have reached slaughter weight, they are caught by hand, or sometimes by using a specially designed catching machine, and placed into crates for transport to the abattoir. The practice of catching is stressful because of the disturbance to the birds during the pick-up process; feed and water deprivation prior to catching; noise and dust during catching; disruption of the dark period and resting; and handling at catching (e.g. carrying the bird upside down by one or both legs). This stress is exacerbated when multiple pick-ups occur within the same flock over a period of time. Then, during transport, chickens are exposed to various stressors including weather, the micro-environments within transport crates, minimal space allowance, social disturbance, noise, vehicle vibrations and motion, as well as feed and water deprivation.

At the abattoir, meat chickens are stunned (rendered unconscious) before slaughter. In Australia, this occurs either by electrical stunning or controlled atmosphere (gas) stunning. Electrical stunning systems have inherent animal welfare issues including the inverting and shackling of conscious birds, risk of painful pre-stun shocks and variability in stun effectiveness. Controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) has significant welfare advantages in comparison to electrical stunning systems because it does not require shackling of conscious birds. However, due to high concentrations of carbon dioxide gas being aversive to birds there are still some associated welfare issues.

The age of meat chicken breeder birds (i.e. the birds that lay the eggs from which the chickens raised for meat are hatched) and longer egg storage times in the hatchery can have negative impacts on the health and welfare of the hatched chick such as increasing the likelihood of physical abnormalities and early mortalities in chicks. This fast growth rate of meat chickens also means that meat chicken breeder birds are genetically predisposed to grow very quickly and are at a high risk of obesity. To manage this risk of obesity in breeder birds, their feed may be restricted resulting in birds being chronically hungry and stressed.

The RSPCA has identified 11 priorities for addressing the animal welfare challenges in the meat chicken industry, with the aim of ensuring all chickens have the opportunity to experience good animal welfare throughout their lives. These priorities are listed below.

By choosing products from animals farmed to higher welfare standards and supporting farming practices that prioritise animal welfare, we can all make a positive difference to the way farm animals are treated and give them a better life.

Through RSPCA Certified, the RSPCA works closely with farmers committed to raising meat chickens to higher animal welfare standards. Meat chicken producers farming to the RSPCA Standard are already on a pathway of continuous improvement and working towards addressing the challenges described. With the recent addition of specific requirements for producers raising higher-welfare meat chicken strains, the RSPCA Standard provides a valuable opportunity for forward-thinking producers to address these animal welfare priorities directly and meet the expectations of increasingly discerning consumers.

Addressing all the priorities outlined here will inevitably result in a higher cost of raising, transporting and slaughtering meat chickens. As a result, consumers who expect good animal welfare should also expect to pay more for chicken meat products and help support the investment required by farmers to achieve higher welfare standards for their meat chickens.