Like all animals raised for food on factory farms, chickens suffer severely from inhumane conditions. However, what makes chickens different — and uniquely vulnerable — is how the meat industry has intentionally bred these birds to create unnaturally fast-growing breeds. We are dedicated to helping shoppers make informed choices and helping chicken farmers and producers shift toward healthier, higher-welfare breeds.
The Problem: Unhealthy Growth of Chickens
Americans eat a lot of chickens. In 2024, for the first time, the average American’s annual consumption of chicken surpassed 100 pounds. Of the over 9 billion chickens raised for meat in the U.S. each year, 98% are a Cornish Cross breed raised in filthy, crowded conditions on factory farms. These birds have been selectively bred over decades to grow rapidly and disproportionately, resulting in higher rates of illness and injury, including compromised leg and organ health beginning when they are just weeks old. The most comprehensive scientific study to date evaluated 16 chicken breeds and found that the fastest growers suffered the most from lameness and other disorders.
The Solution: Supporting the Transition to Better, Healthier Chicken Breeds
The links between chickens’ rapid growth genetics and their vast array of welfare issues are not well known by the American public. The ASPCA is working to change that and empower consumers to make informed decisions when it comes to purchasing chicken for themselves or their families.
Despite the widespread consumption of unhealthy chickens, there are other options including alternative breeds already being raised by some farmers across the country. We’re supporting those farmers and food brands who want to make this switch by providing them with the necessary resources to seek better options.
Our Work
We’ve built a collection of resources to educate consumers about the welfare issues associated with rapid-growing breeds [PDF], as well as connect them with brands and supermarkets that are prioritizing better options:
- Our Shop With Your Heart Grocery List highlights chicken products, including pet food and treats, from better chicken breeds. Currently, use of higher welfare breeds is assured by two certification programs: A Greener World’s Animal Welfare Approved certification, and Global Animal Partnership (through the Better Chicken Project and Steps 4 to 5+). For products with one of these certifications, look for the Healthier Chicken Breed icon on our Grocery List.
- Our Label Guide shows shoppers what to look for on product packaging and differentiates between legitimate and meaningless animal welfare claims.
- Our Supermarket Scorecard evaluates the country’s largest supermarket chains on their commitment to transitioning to better breeds, as well as the extent to which they make better chicken products available within their own store brands, as well as on other critical animal welfare issues.
To complement our public awareness efforts and build market demand, we work directly with key stakeholders to provide resources, recommendations and supply chain connections, including chicken farmers and producers, food brands, supermarkets and certifications. These include:
- Farmers who raise broiler chickens and are looking for sources of funding to move to better breeds. We have provided direct financial support through grantmaking to farmers interested in field trials for healthier breeds in different regions using regenerative farming models.
- Researchers interested in the transition from conventional broiler breeds to those with better animal welfare outcomes.
- Animal welfare and regenerative certifications programs that want to incorporate this welfare issue into their standards.
If you work in the broiler industry and would like to learn more about the ASPCA’s work and resources on switching to better breeds, please reach out to [email protected].
What You Can Do
- Join our Factory Farming Task Force! You’ll receive updates on companies and farms making progress transitioning to better breeds.
- If you eat chicken or know those who do, check out our Shop With Your Heart Grocery List to see which animal welfare certified brands and supermarkets are using better chicken breeds. Look for the Animal Welfare Approved logo or the Global Animal Partnership Better Chicken Project logo to find chicken products verified as better breeds. If the chicken brand you are purchasing is not using a healthier breed of chicken, you can politely ask them to start using a healthier breed.
- Eating plant-based instead or substituting chicken for plant-based ingredients in your recipes is another way to help minimize harm to animals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Terminology
The Cornish Cross is a breed of broiler chickens made by crossing Cornish with White Rock chickens. This breed is known for its rapid growth rate, large breast yield, and resulting injuries and illnesses.
Multiple generations of this breed suffer from the impact of their fast growth. Birds used on farms come from breeding stock but because of their incredibly fast growth rate, these birds actually cannot live long enough to reproduce if they’re given adequate food. So, the parent birds are routinely and severely deprived of food, so much so that they behave erratically due to chronic hunger.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides labeling guidance and policies for meat, poultry and egg products, updated its definition for chicken meat marketed as pasture-raised in 2024. These guidelines require that chickens raised for meat must spend the majority (at least 51%) of their lives outdoors on pasture, defined as land mostly “rooted in vegetative cover with grass or other plants” in order for chicken products to be labeled as pasture-raised.
For chicken meat to be marketed as free range chickens must have access to the outdoors — which remains undefined in quantity or quality of the outdoor space.
Neither pasture-raised nor free range claims require chicken breeds to be selected for fitness for the outdoors, meaning that many are still Cornish Cross breeds. The USDA and FSIS pasture-raised and free range definitions do not apply to chickens raised in egg production. Find out more about claims and labels on our Label Guide.
Considerations When Shopping
Two kinds of muscle disorders, white striping and woody breast, are common in the rapid growth chickens that dominate most supermarket aisles.
White striping occurs in rapid growing chickens when muscle cells are replaced by fat and fibrous tissue. This fat shows up as white lines on chicken meat, especially chicken breasts, and can cause texture and taste defects, while the additional fat content affects the meat’s nutritional value. Woody breast causes the chicken meat to be tougher, coarser, and fibrous.
Higher-welfare breeds included in the Global Animal Partnership’s Better Chicken Project were tested for both of these muscle disorders, and were found to have lower rates of them, indicating that healthier animals may lead to better meat quality.
Chickens raised for meat (broilers) and those raised for eggs (laying hens) have different welfare issues. Egg-laying hens are not bred for weight gain, but rather how many eggs they can lay — and they produce a lot of them, almost one egg a day their entire lives. Hens need a lot of calcium to support egg production. This, combined with a lack of exercise as most hens are raised in cages, leaves many hens on factory farms with fragile bones vulnerable to breaks.
Farmer and Brands
The Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) is a policy developed by animal welfare organizations for chicken producers and food businesses to address major animal welfare concerns common in industrial chicken production. It includes transitioning to using a healthier breed of broiler chicken, improving birds’ housing environment (including the space given to birds), adding enrichment to indoor housing, lighting and litter quality and switching to using a more humane method of slaughter. Companies are asked to use third-party auditing to verify compliance in their supply chain and report on their progress annually.
The Better Chicken Project (BCP) is an initiative of Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), an animal welfare certification program that identifies higher welfare breeds of chicken using a scientific protocol. G.A.P. will require the use of Better Chicken Project-approved breeds across its program by 2030, and better breeds are currently required for Steps 4-5+ in the G.A.P. program.
