The term ‘broiler’ was given to the chickens grown for meat by the animal agriculture business. CAS has rescued over 500 broiler chickens in the last ten years. People have found them in mailboxes, in dumpsters, tied to trees in Central Park, hiding under cars, and even on the side of the interstate. Over 300 of the birds narrowly escaped being slaughtered during the annual Jewish Kapparot ritual in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. Having been stuffed 40 at a time into large crates, many of the birds arrived at CAS with broken legs or wings, or simply too sick to save.
Unfortunately, because of how they are grown, broilers live very short lives. They are bred to grow very big and very fast, so that at only 6 weeks of age (still babies) they are large enough to be sent to slaughter.
