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The Animal Welfare Cause
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Loading...Bald Chickens: Scientific Breakthrough, or Animal Cruelty?
Scientists at Hebrew University in Israel have successfully created a breed of featherless, fast-growing chickens. The birds are not genetically modified, but instead the result of selective breeding of a natural mutation.
While this may seem like a strange trait to deliberately breed into a chicken, researchers claim there are many reasons why bald chickens are necessary. They point to the fact that fast-growing “boiler chickens” produce excessive body heat and may suffer tremendously in warmer climates, so the lack of feathers would make these creatures more comfortable.
They may also be leaner and grow faster, which might improve the quality of meat and result in a cost savings. The lack of feathers means that the birds won’t need to be plucked after they’re slaughtered, which not only saves time, claim the researchers – it reduces pollution. Plucking contaminates large quantities of water with feathers and fat.
Animals rights groups aren’t buying it – they claim the changes don’t do anything to improve the lives of chickens and may actually make them worse. For one, the lack of feathers removes crucial protection against parasites. Featherless chickens are also far more vulnerable to sunburn. They also fear that featherless male chickens won’t be able to mate.
It seems that the real issue here is with modern farming techniques – if producers didn’t “intensively” feed these chickens to try to promote quicker growth, they wouldn’t suffer the host of issues which makes featherless chickens necessary to begin with. The solution to animals suffering from inhumane living conditions isn’t to alter them so that they can better tolerate those conditions. Maybe instead of breeding bald chickens, we should be working on improving farms so that regular chickens can have access to sunlight and air, and grow at a natural pace.
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Read more: animal farming, bald chickens, factory farming, farming, selective breeding
Photo by: Steven L Johnson
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Recent Comments from Causes
such a great example of cooperation.
Sorry, Patricia, and with all due respect to you for being Inuit and anyone of a culture who lives by…
You are wonderful, we need more people like you. Thank you.
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123 comments
+ add your ownChe avidità. Fare crescere più in fretta un pollo solo per guadagno......senza pensare a quello che può soffrire il povero pollo.
Really bad!
Why should they care about these gentle creatures. It's just their wallets they are concerned about. I just hope this crap doesn't go ahead. We need to fight this in any way we can.
Playing with nature again! :/ choosing which animal should breed with which isn't right. thanks for sharing :)
they want us to believe that it is for chickens in hot countries, they take us for fools, we all know that these poor animals would go anyway in cold countries like home in France and that these chickens are frozen cold. With us, they say it is to save time since there is not the pluck. is the real reason
they want us to believe that it is for chickens in hot countries, they take us for fools, we all know that these poor animals would go anyway in cold countries like home in France and that these chickens are frozen cold. With us, they say it is to save time since there is not the pluck. is the real reason
they want us to believe that it is for chickens in hot countries, they take us for fools, we all know that these poor animals would go anyway in cold countries like home in France and that these chickens are frozen cold. With us, they say it is to save time since there is not the pluck. is the real reason
Don't be fooled. The developement of a naked chicken has nothing to do with animal welfare.
I'm a poultry fancier. This news actually hit the poultry forums nearly a year ago when the first pictures of a naked chicken was released.
The real application of a naked chicken has nothing to do with the wealfare of the bird but has everything to do with the cost savings it would be to the poultry industry when processing a bird for market.
Just stop over crowding chickens and install systems to lower the temps in broiler barns.
Sick science!!!!
well it is quite clear who profits from bald chickens - and it is not the chickens - what an awful idea.
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