Chickens raised for broilers for mass consumption are now grown in confinement structures that contain up to 22,000 birds. Hatching to slaughter is only eight weeks. Those drumsticks at Kentucky Fried Chicken are from a two-month old chicken. The methods of production are nasty, brutish, and short. Hogs are raised in arguably worse conditions.
Mortality rates are very high.
Sows in gestation stalls and farrowing crates cannot turn around. Emissions of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from excrement and urine are so strong that large exhaust fans must run constantly to remove the toxic gases from the houses. If the fans shut off for more than 15 minutes, hogs begin succumbing to the gases. In the heat of summer, the overcrowded conditions in poultry operations lead to massive die-offs. During the record breaking heat-wave last year in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, millions and millions of hens and broilers suffocated in their packed cages.