In the United States, there are over 300 million Americans that consider themselves to be meat eaters (Berlin). There are many types of animals that are killed and slaughtered so that the American people can receive their meat and eat and feed their families however, there is an animal that is treated so badly and killed so much that it is almost unbelievable on the amount that are killed per year. These animals are chickens and are known as "broiler" chickens which means that "broiler" chickens are bred and raised specifically for factories that use chickens just for meat production. According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) there are about 9,075,261,000 chickens that are slaughtered yearly and of those chickens, 69,683,000 of those chickens are used as layer hens which means that 9,005,578,000 chickens are used for meat consumption (Berlin). This means that if there are 300 million Americans that eat meat, on average, each American will consume about 27.43 chickens every year. So many chickens are slaughtered because of the amount of people that eat meat. As a result of the high demand for chicken meat, this led breeders to genetically engineer their chickens so that they can grow up quicker and contain much more meat. Broiler chickens grow up so quick and big that broiler chickens are known to have broken feet because the chickens gain weight so fast that their bones can not keep up with the amount of weight their body gains (Murray). By week six, broiler chickens are ready to be sent out to chicken factories where they will be slaughtered inhumanely. Although people might see animals as a source of food and simply as property, chickens must be treated humanely because animals have lives that are valuable.
Chickens are a primary source of food that Americans eat in their everyday diet. The population of America is around 321,216,397, and only about 300 million of those Americans consider themselves to be meat eaters (Berlin).
