Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

Grandin admits that she has always been more interested in cows and pigs than in other types of animals. However, when McDonald’s hired her to assess their chicken welfare standards after she worked with them on cows and pigs, she was horrified by the chickens’ conditions and vowed to help. Chickens suffer for three main reasons: cruel handling, bad industry practices, and genetics. Rough handling is even more widespread on poultry farms than it is in stockyards and in pig farming because chickens are smaller and workers assume that the birds are less sensitive to physical pain and do not have emotions. 

However, mistreatment of chickens is also systemic; laying hens are routinely kept in too-small pens, denied veterinary care, neglected when they are no longer capable of laying, and euthanized via inhumane techniques. The author advocates euthanasia by gassing because it is much less cruel than other techniques that she has observed on farms. She is also hopeful that some of the cage-free systems she has observed will become standard practice in the future. Chickens frequently suffer injuries because of the way that they are caged, and she believes that farmers can use more humane cages without sacrificing profits. 

She also notes that genetics come into play because of selective breeding.