Kenya: Factory-farmed chicken cruelty raises concerns

The popularity of chicken meat is growing in Kenya thanks to the rising middle class, fast-food joints and health benefits associated with white meat. As demand for chicken meat and eggs grows so does the number of chicken farms. This is driven by Kenyans’ love for chicken meat at 92 per cent followed by beef (84.7 per cent) and fish (79.4 per cent), according to a 2019 study by animal welfare group World Animal Protection (WAP). Unlike free-range chickens that roam freely on vast lands, factory-farmed chickens are kept in cramped, highly automated and unnatural environments as units of production with disregard for their welfare. Confinements, surgical procedures without painkillers and denial of normal socialisation deny them rights that they would have otherwise enjoyed in natural environments such as nesting, perching and sunlight access. Others include wing flapping, dust bathing, walking as well as running outdoors. While such practices affect birds’ social and psychological ...