In a recent report by journalist Kenny Torrella published on Vox, a dark side of the American poultry industry was exposed nearly 597 million chickens die every year before ever reaching consumers. This staggering number includes not only birds that perish on farms, but also those that die in hatcheries, during transport, or are slaughtered but deemed unfit for consumption due to disease or injury.
The primary cause of this crisis lies in the way chickens are raised in the U.S. Birds are pushed to their biological limits through industrial breeding techniques, forcing them to grow at an unnaturally fast pace that their bodies simply cannot handle. Over the past decades, the average weight of a broiler chicken has increased from 3 pounds in 1950 to more than 6.5 pounds today, achieved in just 47 days. But this accelerated growth comes at a high cost, leading to severe health issues like heart failure, broken limbs, and debilitating pain in their chests and legs often resulting in death before slaughter.
What worsens the situation is the lack of veterinary care. According to Sean Thomas, Director of Investigations at Animal Equality, the industry is fully aware that hundreds of millions of birds will die and still, it chooses profit over life. As he explains, there is little to no medical intervention for sick chickens, because a single sick bird holds no economic value for the industry.
The ethical and environmental implications of these deaths are no less alarming. These fatalities not only represent massive animal suffering but also contribute to a form of hidden food waste, as millions of dead birds end up buried, incinerated, or repurposed as pet food. It’s estimated that a quarter of all hatched chickens in the U.S. are never eaten, either due to premature death or spoilage at various stages of production and consumption.
To make matters worse, efforts in recent years to reduce the use of antibiotics an important step to combat bacterial resistance and have inadvertently led to higher mortality rates. Many companies had relied on antibiotics as a preventive measure in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. When these drugs were phased out without improving living conditions or switching to slower-growing breeds, mortality rates rose. Some major producers like Tyson and Chick-fil-A have even reversed course, reintroducing a class of antibiotics called ionophores, which, though not used in human medicine, represent a step back from previous public health commitments.
On the other hand, Perdue Farms has demonstrated a different approach. The company has shown that it’s possible to reduce chicken mortality without relying on antibiotics by improving farm conditions, introducing probiotics into feed, and adopting better hygiene practices in hatcheries. Perdue has also begun experimenting with slower-growing breeds but these efforts are still in early stages, and far from widespread.
The pressing question remains: How long can this industry continue to operate at the expense of millions of living beings? In the absence of federal laws protecting chickens in hatcheries, farms, or slaughterhouses, their suffering remains largely unmonitored and unregulated. As the birds suffer in silence, major corporations continue to reap profits in one of the most inhumane and overlooked sectors of the modern food industry.
