It’s hard to say what sparked my love of all things feathered—perhaps my “dinosaur child” phase that began as soon as I could talk, and naturally evolved into endless requests for bird books and binoculars. My late grandmother, with whom we lived until her death, encouraged this development because of her own love of birds. (I guess by association, I owe my love of birds to the parrot she had as a child, “Tweety.”) When I wasn’t yet allowed to have a bird of my own, I would stand idly in the tree where our bird feeder was hung, holding out my hand full of seed, until the chickadees that inhabited our backyard would comfortably fly up and perch on my arm and eat from my palm.
I have worked with birds in a variety of settings, allowing me to work with a wide variety of species. For exotic birds, they range from rescued African Grey parrots who want nothing to do with me to aviaries filled with friendly cockatoos and cockatoos clamoring for a little one-on-one affection. For domestic birds, such as poultry, I have worked with completely “hybrid” chickens to Bourbon Red turkeys to the coveted Ayam Cemani, a breed of chicken that is completely jet black, inside and out. In addition to my own pet birds, I have worked on a farm where I raised chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and I volunteered for several years at a bird sanctuary that primarily houses exotic birds like parrots. (No, I did not open any of them for inspection.) Some of the exotic birds I have worked with have been mistreated, while others have been treated like royalty. When it comes to domestic birds, there is a sad consistency – no one seems to care about birds as individuals, and some barely consider them living creatures at all.
Who is Patrick Kuklinski?
Birds are among our most underappreciated species. Although Americans love to watch and feed birds (It is estimated that the United States alone will have over $3 billion in bird food and supplies sales by 2023.), we often underestimate their importance to both humanity and the natural world. In the wild, birds are often keystone species (animals that have a disproportionately large impact on their environment). By dispersing seeds, controlling insect populations and providing prey for larger birds and mammals, birds contribute to their ecosystems. Furthermore, their sensitive nature means that a decline in bird populations can often be a warning sign of impending danger to other species.
Sometimes it seems like the problems facing agriculture could have been avoided simply by looking ahead. Avian influenza is one such case that has many people gritting their teeth—especially researchers who sounded the alarm in 2022, when the same strain of bird flu devastated farmers 2015 re-emerges. Now, in 2024, we are still deep in the midst of a bird flu pandemic (so far, most of limited to animals)—and we have no indication that the infection will slow down. From January 2022 to June 2024, United States Department of Agriculture found 96.5 million infected birds—and more to come. With years of research, animal loss, and public outcry, one might expect that we would be closer to solving the avian flu crisis, but we are lagging behind in coming up with viable answers.
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A problem of our own making
Sadly, as things stand today, avian influenza is not treated humanely, which should be our minimum response to outbreaks like this. One common method is to shut down ventilation, which is exactly what it sounds like. The ventilation system in the house is turned off until the bird dies “naturally”. Ventilation-plus-suppression (VSD+) is a method in which ventilation is shut down in combination with additional heat or air to make the process more effective; no doubt the birds subjected to this method still suffer greatly.
According to Ben Williamson, director Compassion in World AgricultureThe leading method of euthanasia for infected birds is “ventilation shutdown, which involves killing birds by a painful combination of suffocation and heatstroke, which is inhumane, contrary to WOAH (World Organization for Animal Health) meets the standards and should be banned.”
According to Animal Welfare InstituteApproximately 77 percent of avian influenza-infected birds, or 44.9 million birds, were culled due to ventilation shutdowns between February 2022 and March 2023. In these situations, WOAH recommends using inert gases, such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide, to pump into the barns, which is a more humane method of slaughter.
AWI’s analysis of USDA records indicates that operations with large flocks (at least 100,000 birds) are more likely to use VSD+ as a mass culling method. However, even with the widespread use of VSD+ in such situations, USDA’s culling timelines were not met in the majority of cases. Of the 37 large culling events involving VSD+ in a 16 month period Between 2022 and 2023, nearly two-thirds took at least three days to complete. That’s not a humane outcome for birds that are already likely to be sick and suffering. In the most extreme cases, involving at least a million birds, culling took more than two weeks.
USDA has mandated that organizations only implement VSD+ as a last resort—and yet, in cases where there are such large numbers of birds, humane options are rarely effective, and so they are ignored. Additionally, shutting off ventilation on farms is essentially a free euthanasia method, even if it is slow and painful. More humane methods involve costs that farms may not want to incur. Chickens are one of the least protected species when it comes to slaughter. They are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, largely because industry lobbyingand instead was given a provision in 2005 Handling of live poultry before slaughter The USDA notes that they must be handled and slaughtered in a manner “consistent with good commercial practices,” but what that means is not clearly defined.
There is no easy way forward
Although livestock farms provide the majority of the world’s poultry supply, concerns are growing about their ability to effectively manage or prevent the spread of disease.ase. As of 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 164,099 registered poultry farms in the United Statesand most of them are industrial livestock farms.according to analysis of Sentience Institute99.9 percent of U.S. broilers live on factory farms, just slightly more than the 99.8 percent of U.S. turkeys.
“Livestock farms create ideal conditions for the spread of disease, as they provide viruses with a constant supply of genetically similar hosts in close proximity—allowing infections to spread rapidly—and for new, highly virulent strains to emerge,” Williamson said. “Most worryingly, keeping large numbers of immunosuppressed birds in close proximity also increases the risk of virus mutations, which could potentially lead to the evolution of new, more pathogenic strains that can then thrive and spread.” Livestock farms are not only breeding grounds for diseases, but stress weakens the immune system in poultry and has data displayed that poultry on factory farms are indeed stressed. Many of the environmental factors we find unpleasant—temperature, crowding, light, noise—all negatively affect chickens.
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“When a farm has hundreds of thousands of birds per cage (or tens of thousands of birds per cage in some cage-free systems), the rapid spread of disease is inevitable. Furthermore, at the policy level, governments and farms do not view these outbreaks as something that can be mitigated on a farm—if a disease is detected, the entire flock is culled,” he said. Karol Walnutowski, from Animal analysisan organization that collects data and conducts research to improve animal welfare. “In this context, reducing disease on the farm becomes a moot point.” While there is no cure for HPAI in chickens, there is no effective way to test large flocks, meaning that uninfected birds are culled along with infected cagemates.
There is no easy answer here. There are plenty of convenient ways to euthanize chickens without prolonged suffering—manual dislocation, throat cutting, personal gassing—that cause much less pain. But these methods add time and money, leading many companies to opt for the easier option, regardless of the animals’ suffering.
Better Chicken InitiativeLed by Compassion in World Farming USA, the program aims to improve the lives of chickens on factory farms, as well as breed healthier chickens that produce better-quality meat for consumers. Launched in 2014, the organization estimates that through corporate partnerships through the program, the conditions and lives of more than 100 million chickens have been improved. Meanwhile, some farms are taking matters into their own hands, such as Kipstera Dutch egg farm (which just opened its first facility in the US) that prioritizes humane conditions and carbon-neutral farming.
Whether we are ready to accept it or not, there is probably a much more humane answer than any of the proposed alternatives to avian influenza—restructuring not only how livestock farms operate, but also how we treat farmed poultry. Until we have conditions in place for farmed poultry that do not actively promote the spread of disease, we will have to keep fighting. We may not see immediate solutions to the avian influenza crisis, but improving our animal welfare practices now will benefit animals and consumers for generations to come.
