Animal Welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Animal Welfare - Essay Example Such definitions are always in line with the Five Freedoms of animal. The five freedoms of animal welfare outline five preconditions of a good animal welfare system: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to express normal behavior, and freedom to from fear and distress.   These clamor for animal welfare has become a great debate especially now with the increasingly fast food world where the demand for some animal meat, like chicken, has outstripped natural production cycles. It is estimated that in the Great Britain alone, over 850 million broiler chickens are reared each year, and approximately 26 chickens are slaughtered every second   (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 2010). In fact, over the past thirty years, the demand for chicken meat has been exponentially rising which makes poultry farming a very viable commercial activity. And like all commercial enterprises, the aim has been to ach ieve greater and greater profits by reducing the costs of production.Unfortunately, the reduction in the cost of production has gradually led to more and more genetically selected breeds of broiler chicken that are able to give higher meat production in less and less time. Moreover, the conditions for rearing such chickens has generally deteriorated and are often not considerate of the welfare of the chicken. Often the chickens are reared in a confined space with little or no light, and have to struggle for food and water. This struggle often leads to starvation of some chicken and injury to others. However, there are some exceptional cases where the welfare of the chicken are taken care of even though they are still kept in large numbers in confined spaces. There is also an emerging trend of consumers preferring free range chicken, or organic chicken to those reared in confined spaces. This leads to the question on the possibility of paying more for well kept or organic chicken rather than the more cheap ill kept chicken which are reared in conditions that have no regard for the welfare of chickens. Methodology There is growing concern among animal rights activists that the exponential rise in the demand for chicken meat is gradually leading to further deterioration of the conditions of stay of farm