Are chickens really killed humanely? What the chicken meat industry doesn’t want you to know.

While we might hope that chickens are killed without suffering, in their final minutes, these birds are in pain, hung upside down, struggling to breathe, as they face the terror of “live-shackle slaughter.” Some will suffer broken bones in the process. Some are even boiled alive.

Read on to find out more about how chickens are killed and what alternatives there are to reduce or stop the suffering.

What is live shackling?

When chickens are trucked to the slaughterhouse, they arrive in plastic crates. They are dragged out and metal shackles are clamped around their legs to attach them to a hanging conveyor belt. The shackles bite into their legs, causing pain, especially for larger chickens. Chickens have pain receptors in their legs, and studies show the shackling process causes bruising to thigh muscles and damage to their legs. Some birds are already in pain from having legs or wings broken, or joints dislocated, during the catching and transport process.

Being hung upside down by their feet is extremely distressing for any animal, but especially for chickens because, unlike humans, they don’t have a diaphragm. This means that when hung upside down, their lungs and heart are crushed by their other internal organs.

How are chickens stunned at the slaughterhouse?

The method used for stunning in New Zealand is called waterbath stunning. The waterbath is a vat of water with an electric current running through it. The idea is that the birds’ heads are dragged through the water and a current runs from their heads to their feet in the metal shackles.

The chickens are flapping around in their distress from being hung in the shackles, so their wings can enter the water before their heads, which gives them a painful pre-shock.

The waterbath fails to stun some of the chickens. Birds may not be properly stunned because they raise their heads and miss the water, or the electric current could be too low to cause unconsciousness, especially for some larger birds. Instead, they are just immobilised, which means they are fully conscious but can’t move. They can still feel pain when their throats are cut. Even a small failure rate means potentially thousands of individuals having their throats cut while fully conscious.

After stunning, the birds have their throats slit and then their body is dragged through a vat of hot water. The automated neck-cutting machine fails to kill some birds. This is because some are larger or smaller than the average size, so instead they are slashed across their breast or head. They miss a lethal neck cut so are plunged fully conscious into a vat of hot water – the scalding tank.

A worker stands by the shackle line with the job of cutting the throats of any birds that haven’t been stunned, but with the large number of birds that pass them, each minute, it’s very difficult for them to ensure they don’t miss any of the birds.

Birds that are missed by the workers, will drown after feeling the sensation of the burning water. It’s horrific and the slaughter plants know it’s happening because the birds come out bright red!

By law, all chickens in New Zealand are supposed to be stunned before they are killed, but the failure of waterbath stunning to cause all chickens to become unconscious means that this law is repeatedly being broken.

What are the alternatives to waterbath stunning?

The most commonly adopted alternative to stunning chickens with an electrified waterbath is controlled atmospheric stunning (CAS), sometimes also called controlled atmosphere stunning. The crates of chickens are passed through a chamber containing gas or gases, on a conveyor belt. At the other end, the dead birds are hung on a shackle line.

CAS involves stunning chickens with gas, either carbon dioxide or inert gases (nitrogen or argon). Where carbon dioxide is used, the process needs to be carried out in at least two stages, in the first the concentration of carbon dioxide needs to be less than 30% (according to the New Zealand Slaughter Code of Welfare), to reduce the feeling of suffocation, and once they are unconscious, a higher concentration can be used.

Why is CAS a preferred method for stunning chickens?

CAS reduces much of the suffering involved in live shackle waterbath stunning.

The chickens remain in the crates, so they are not handled. This reduces stress and fear, and removes the pain of having their legs clamped into metal shackles.

Is gas stunning available in New Zealand?

CAS (gas stunning) is not available in New Zealand, but it is used at some chicken slaughterhouses in Australia using carbon dioxide, but not with inert gases. CAS does not meet the current New Zealand requirements for halal slaughter which all chicken meat in New Zealand is currently produced to.

CAS is commonly used for stunning chickens overseas, especially in the UK, Europe and the US. In the UK, for example, 85% of the 1.1 billion chickens killed per year are stunned using CAS.

What is LAPS?

A relatively recent development for stunning chickens is called LAPS, which stands for Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning. In a LAPS system, chickens are kept in their transport crates and placed in a sealed chamber, and the atmospheric pressure is gradually reduced using controlled slow decompression with a vacuum pump. This results in the gradual removal of oxygen in the air thereby causing unconsciousness and death by lack of oxygen.

LAPS has advantages over waterbath stunning in that no live birds are handled or shackled.

This method is not available in New Zealand or Australia.

What is it like working in a chicken slaughterhouse?

The way chickens are killed isn’t just bad for the birds themselves; slaughterhouses (also called freezing works or abattoirs) are also very unpleasant places for people to work and tend to have a high staff turnover.

A slaughterhouse is a very stressful environment for the workers. They work in the stench of blood and guts, and the fast-moving machinery can lead to injuries. The fast movement of the shackle line means many birds pass by each minute, which is why those charged with killing the birds who fail to be stunned effectively, miss some who end up boiled alive in the scalding tank.

There are other hazards workers can be exposed to. Recently, the chlorine being used to wash the chickens’ bodies has been making workers sick at the Tegel slaughterhouse in Christchurch. Chlorine [link to chlorine section] is used to try to disinfect the chickens.

CAS and LAPS stunning are less unpleasant for the workers than live shackle waterbath stunning, as the workers do not have to handle frightened, squirming birds who can peck and scratch. They only have to handle dead birds.

Do chickens get stunned for halal slaughter in New Zealand?

Yes, stunning is allowable under halal rules in New Zealand.

Halal is a way of killing animals that meets the rules of the Muslim religion. In halal slaughter animals traditionally are not stunned before slaughter, they have to be facing Mecca (East) when killed, and the slaughter has to be carried out by an ordained Muslim cleric.

However, as waterbath stunning doesn’t kill the chickens (it only stuns them and they die from the knife cut), it is allowable under New Zealand halal rules.

Regularly in slaughterhouses, some chickens are left to recover from the stun, to test that it is reversible. This adds to the suffering of these individuals.

Is chicken slaughter halal in New Zealand?

100 per cent of commercial slaughter of chickens in New Zealand is to meet halal standards. This is partly due to some chicken meat being exported to countries where Islam is a major religion and partly due to some companies wanting to offer halal meat to their customers.

What is shecita and what does it mean for chickens in NZ?

Although stunning is required by law in New Zealand, there is an exception for chickens killed for the strict Jewish market, to make the meat kosher. Up to 5,000 chickens can be slaughtered each year using the traditional Jewish method, shecita, which involves severing the neck of the animal and allowing the blood to drain.

Those who support the shecita method point to the failure rate of waterbath stunning. A spokesperson said, “The pre-stunning system carried out overseas and in New Zealand has a failure rate that is not fully known and also not spoken of. That approach as a system designed to reduce an animal’s pain is defective.”

How does the Better Chicken Commitment improve chickens’ lives and deaths?

The Better Chicken Commitment is a set of science-based higher animal welfare standards.

The Better Chicken Commitment does not allow live shackle slaughter, and instead calls for Controlled Atmospheric Stunning or non-inversion electrical stunning to be used.

To improve chickens’ lives, the most important part of the Better Chicken Commitment requires an end to the use of unhealthy fast-growing chicken breeds, to be replaced by healthier, more naturally growing breeds. It also means that chickens are given more space to move, an enriched enrichment with perches and objects to peck at, and natural light.

Find out more about the Better Chicken Commitment.

What are the legal requirements for chicken stunning and slaughter?

The New Zealand Animal Welfare Act recognises that chickens are sentient, i.e. they are capable of experiencing a range of positive and negative feelings, and need to be handled as such.

The Commercial Slaughter Code of Welfare exists under the Act to outline minimum standards. It recognises that, “it is likely that suspending a bird upside down from a shackle will cause it some distress.” Despite this, and despite the failure rate of electric waterbath systems to adequately stun all chickens in slaughterhouses, the Code still allows this method.

Both Controlled Atmospheric Stunning and head-only electrical stunners are allowed as methods for stunning chickens under the Slaughter Code, but in practice, these aren’t being used.

How many chickens are killed each day in New Zealand?

Chickens bred for meat are the most common farmed land animals in New Zealand. Four out of every five animals killed is a chicken for meat. That means that more than 300,000 chickens are killed for meat each day. This huge number of chickens involved and the pain and distress of so many individuals when they are killed, adds up to a massive amount of suffering and why change is so urgently needed.

How are chickens slaughtered humanely?

Many people ask for their meat to be killed humanely. For them, a humane killing is one where the animal doesn’t suffer. When chickens are bred to grow abnormally fast and are killed at six weeks old using the methods described in this article, there is a considerable amount of fear, pain and stress on these animals, that doesn’t align with New Zealanders’ values.

How old are chickens when they are killed for meat?

Most chickens farmed for meat in New Zealand, are taken for slaughter at six weeks old or younger. They are still just chicks when they are killed, with blue eyes and making the same peeping sound that baby birds do.

There is a tiny proportion of the birds that are raised organically. These chickens reared by Bostock Brothers are killed at around eight weeks old. They grow at a slower rate than the norm for the New Zealand chicken industry, due to the different feed they are given. Despite the slower growth, these birds do still suffer lameness and other health problems, because of the unhealthy breeds used throughout New Zealand.

Why are chickens killed at six weeks old?

Here in New Zealand, the chickens raised commercially for meat, including free range, have been selectively bred to grow abnormally fast. These breeds of chickens grow so big and so fast that many suffer chronic pain and lameness. Some can’t lift their bodies up off the floor to reach food or water. Others struggle to breathe or suffer organ failure within weeks of being hatched. All because they’ve been bred to grow faster than nature intended.

How are chickens killed when they are culled inside chicken sheds?

Due to the unhealthy breeds currently used throughout the New Zealand chicken industry, some birds are so lame or suffering other visible health problems that they are killed by a worker in the sheds. The most common way workers kill these birds is by dislocating the chicken’s necks as they find them in their daily walks through the sheds.

According to industry figures, approximately 6,000 chickens have to be culled or have already died in sheds every day in New Zealand. Watch to learn more about the high level of mortality in chicken sheds in New Zealand.

Healthier, slower growing breeds of chickens have lower mortality rates – fewer chickens dying in the sheds or needing to be killed due to painful lameness and other severe health problems. These healthier breeds are required as part of the Better Chicken Commitment.

How do free-range chickens get killed?

All chickens bred for meat in New Zealand, whether reared on free-range farms or fully indoor, are killed in the same way. They are six weeks old or younger when they are killed.

Despite being labelled free-range, many of these birds will never manage to get outside the shed they are in. This is because tens of thousands of chickens are in each shed on free-range farms, and a bird may have to push past many others to reach one of the so-called ‘pop-holes’ in the shed wall to get outside. Also, because free-range chickens are from breeds that grow abnormally fast, many struggle to walk, so they spend their whole lives inside.

When the chickens are filmed on free-range chicken farms, in the last weeks of their lives at only four to five weeks old, they can be observed taking just one or two steps, then flopping down on heavily on the ground. This is because their legs have trouble holding up their massive bodies and their feet can be painful with each step they take.

What happens to hens used for eggs?

The hens used for egg production are killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan, at between 12 and 18 months old. This is the same whether the hens are farmed in a caged, barn or free-range system. They are killed because the frequency of their egg-laying reduces, so they are replaced with younger hens that are more profitable.

Gas stunning with carbon dioxide is currently utilised to kill hens used for eggs when they are disposed of at the end of their first laying period. This method is used because it’s generally considered uneconomical to send hens being killed at a pause in their lay, to the slaughterhouse, as they’re not ‘worth’ much money.

How are male chicks in the egg industry killed?

Roughly half of the millions of chicks hatched for the egg industry in New Zealand are male. All the chicks that hatch are put on a conveyor belt, where the females are removed and sent off to be used for egg-laying. Since males don’t lay eggs, they are considered a waste product and are killed at one day old. They are most commonly dropped into a macerating machine where they are ground up alive. Gassing is an alternative way for these male chicks to be killed.

How are turkeys killed?

Turkeys are killed using the same waterbath stunning method as chickens bred for meat. These birds potentially suffer even more when they are shackled upside down because they are heavier than chickens.

What is thinning?

At anywhere from four weeks old, a process called thinning is usually undertaken in chicken sheds. This involves removing a proportion of the chickens farmed for meat and trucking them to a slaughterhouse. Thinning may be done once or multiple times on a single shed full of chickens. Thinning is stressful both for the birds removed and those left behind.

Despite thinning, by the time the remaining chickens in the shed are five to six weeks old, they are packed in so tightly, that the sheds can look like a sea of bodies with virtually no floor space visible.

How are chickens collected/rounded up to be taken for slaughter?

A gang of workers come into the shed, often at night when the birds are sleepy. They grab birds by their legs and dump them in plastic crates. The workers are allowed, by law, to carry four chickens upside down in each hand. This is despite the recommended best practice, according to the New Zealand Meat Chickens Code of Welfare, being that chickens should be carried around the body and upright.

The frightened birds may struggle in this process, and end up with dislocated joints or broken legs as they are crammed into plastic crates, that are then stacked on the back of a truck.

How are chickens transported to slaughter?

The plastic crates containing the chickens, are stacked on top of each other on the back of an open truck. This is a very stressful experience for the chickens, who may have not seen daylight until that time.

It is legal for food to be withheld for up to 12 hours before they arrive at the slaughterhouse. This is especially bad for the breeds of chickens currently used in New Zealand, who are bred to be constantly hungry so they put on weight as quickly as possible.

The birds in the crates on the outside edges of the truck can be exposed to extremes of temperature. Some arrive at the slaughterhouse dead and others are dying.

Pounamu – a lucky escape from slaughter

Very rarely, a chicken manages to escape from a transport crate, ending up loose on the back of the truck. Pounamu (Pou for short), was one such bird who fell off a truck on the way to a slaughterhouse. Luckily the person who found Pou was an animal lover and quickly made sure she was taken to a sanctuary.

Pou seems to be blessed in more ways than just having a very lucky escape from an early death.

Despite being one of the abnormally fast-growing breeds, she is one of the oldest living chickens bred for meat that we are aware of. Sadly ‘oldest’ when it comes to chickens bred for meat is just six years. Her body was designed to grow meat, rather than sustain life and as a result, she is about twice as large as her egg-laying sisters and needs regular veterinary attention.

Pou has been on heart medication for many years, and her biological clock is ticking fast. This doesn’t stop her from enjoying life to the full.

Is New Zealand chicken healthy?

The way chickens are reared, killed and eaten, isn’t just bad for the birds themselves, it can also put people’s health at risk.

Is chicken washed in chlorine?

In New Zealand, once the birds have been killed and their feathers removed, their bodies are washed with chlorine to remove some of the bacteria.

Chickens’ bodies can carry a variety of diseases including Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli. These diseases are prevalent due to the dirty conditions they birds are forced to live in and the stress they are under, which reduces their immune systems’ ability to fight disease.

Washing chicken in chlorine and other disinfectants to remove harmful bacteria was banned by the European Union in 1997 over food safety concerns, but it continues to be used in New Zealand, Australia and the US. One reason for the EU ban is that treating meat with chlorine at the end could lead to poorer hygiene standards elsewhere in the chicken killing process.

Are there hormones added to NZ chicken meat?

Hormones are not given to chickens bred for meat in New Zealand, but people sometimes think they are because these birds grow so abnormally fast. Instead of hormones, this unnatural growth rate is because the breeds used for meat have been aggressively selectively bred over decades. These birds now double in size each week to be killed at only four to six weeks old.

Find out more about the abnormally fast-growing breeds used throughout the New Zealand chicken meat industry.

Choose plant-based

Since it is never possible to kill chickens without causing any suffering, an increasing number of people prefer not to support this industry by keeping chickens off their plates. Instead, they choose plant-based options.

Perhaps you are already thinking about joining them, but not sure how to start. For easy, delicious chicken-free recipes, why not download our free recipe booklet and get inspired?