17 June 2022

Violated Expectations in the Experience of Factory‑Farmed Chickens

Thinking Like a Chicken Podcast
News & Views!

Three hens caged in egg laying factory looking into the camera.
Photography by Andrew Skowron

Agribusiness portrays chickens raised for food as “happy” and “content” in the squalor of their factory-farm environment. Exploiters insist that chickens who have never known anything else cannot “miss” fresh air, sunshine, and personal space. Is this true? In today’s podcast I examine this claim including whether farmers really “know” their animals. Tune in and find out how chickens experience their dark world of incarceration, and why they cannot adapt to it.

Thinking Like a Chicken Overview

KAREN DAVIS, PhD is the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl including a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia. Inducted into the National Animal Rights Hall of Fame for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Liberation, Karen is the author of numerous books, essays, articles and campaigns. Her latest book is For the Birds: From Exploitation to Liberation: Essays on Chickens, Turkeys, and Other Domesticated Fowl published by Lantern Publications & Media.

Karen with Rainbow the rooster
Photo by Unparalleled Suffering Photography
Rainbow looking into the camera. Karen smiling and looking at Rainbow