Meat chickens

Chicken is by far the most popular animal protein consumed in Australia, however chickens raised for their meat face a number of serious welfare issues.

The average Australian consumes around 50kg of chicken each year, and to meet this demand, more than 750 million chickens are slaughtered for meat each year. This level of demand, and the intensity of production required to meet it, means that meat chickens face a number of serious welfare challenges, including:

The rapid growth of meat chicken breeds who have been genetically selected to grow very fast, resulting in serious health and welfare issues.
High stocking densities indoors, limit the ability of meat chickens to easily move around and perform natural behaviours.
Poor quality of indoor housing, such as inadequate ventilation and lighting regimes.
Poor quality outdoor environments where provided, without adequate overhead cover and palatable vegetation.
Risk of injury and distress from euthanasia methods, catching, transport, and pre-slaughter stunning methods.

The issue

Genetics and fast growth: The skeletal, muscle and other bodily systems of fast-growing meat chicken breeds are unable to support the rapid growth for which they’ve been genetically selected. This rapid growth can lead to health and welfare issues including lower activity levels, contact dermatitis, leg disorders, increased susceptibility to stress, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic disorders.

This is a particularly important issue, because while many other problems - such as poor housing and inadequate space – can be addressed over the life of the chicken, we are limited in what we can do to mitigate the inherent welfare impacts of these genetic selection decisions.

Space allowance indoors: Higher stocking densities for older meat chickens limit their ability to easily move about and perform natural behaviours, which can increase the risk of contact dermatitis, lameness, and heat stress. The current legal maximum stocking density for meat chickens in Australia is 40kg/m².

Indoor housing: Inadequate ventilation in sheds results in poor air quality, increasing the risk of heat stress, ammonia toxicity, and death. Artificial lighting is used to mimic daylight and dark periods, but must be appropriate (e.g. intensity, adequate dark time for rest). Poorly maintained and wet litter in a shed can increase the risk of disease and discourage natural behaviours (such as dustbathing and foraging).

Outdoor access: Free-range meat chickens are required to have access to an outdoor area with shade and shelter once they are fully feathered. Meat chickens with access to a good quality outdoor area have been shown to have improved leg health, display more natural behaviours, and show less fear, but can have higher mortality rates than meat chickens in indoor systems. The majority of meat chickens in Australia are farmed in indoor-only systems.

Euthanasia: Meat chickens must be euthanised if they’re identified as weak, sick, or injured and unlikely to recover. The most common method of euthanasia for meat chickens is manual cervical dislocation (quickly stretching the bird’s neck to dislocate the first cervical vertebrae from the skull), but this may not result in an immediate loss of consciousness and so may cause pain and distress prior to death.

Slaughter: In Australia, meat chickens are stunned prior to slaughter to ensure they are unconscious and don’t experience pain during slaughter and prior to death – this is a very important part of humane slaughter. The two main stunning methods for meat chickens are electrical waterbath stunning or controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) with carbon dioxide gas. Both have welfare risks, but electrical waterbath stunning systems have several inherent animal welfare risks, including the fact that birds need to be shackled upside down while conscious.

What needs to change

The RSPCA continues to advocate for:

Improvements to meat chicken genetics in Australia and encourage genetic companies to select for pro-welfare traits, and uptake of higher-welfare breeds such as slower-growing breeds.
The legal maximum stocking density allowance for meat chickens to be reduced in Australia, and work with industry to provide meat chickens with their optimal space requirements for each type of housing system.
Legal minimum requirements to ensure that meat chickens are provided with adequate ventilation to maintain air quality, shed temperatures to ensure health and comfort, a lighting regime that provides adequate dark time for rest and appropriate lighting intensities and spectrum, and a litter substrate of an appropriate material and depth to encourage natural behaviours.
Where meat chickens have outdoor access, that the range is designed with adequate overhead cover and palatable vegetation, as well as being managed in a way that keeps meat chickens safe and mitigates possible biosecurity risks.
The phase out of stunning methods that require conscious birds to be shackled by their feet, such as electrical waterbath stunning, to be replaced by more humane methods.

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 Australia Standard - Meat Chickens set themselves on a pathway of continuous improvement to address the challenges described. Thanks to widespread industry participation to date, there have been meaningful improvements to the welfare of chickens raised for meat in Australia, but there is more work to be done.

The 2026 Standard will phase in a reduction in stocking density, introduce variable light intensity, and phase out routine electrical waterbath stunning. And, with the addition of specific requirements for producers raising higher-welfare meat chicken breeds, the Standard provides a valuable opportunity for forward-thinking producers to address these animal welfare priorities directly and meet the expectations of increasingly discerning consumers.

The RSPCA will continue to work with industry, government and the public to advocate for change and help improve the welfare of the hundreds of millions of meat chickens farmed in Australia every year.

The RSPCA also welcomes any measures to tangibly improve the welfare of chickens raised for meat, including the Better Chicken Commitment.

Chicken is by far the most popular animal protein consumed in Australia, however chickens raised for their meat face a number of serious welfare issues.

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The issue

What needs to change

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