“Chickens,” not “broilers” (or “layers”)
UPC photo of Felix by Karen Davis
Karen Davis’s letter to All Animals, a publication of The Humane Society of the United States, appears in the November/December 2018 issue of the magazine:
Thank you for reporting on the good work you are doing to help ease the suffering of chickens raised for meat, referred to in the title as “broilers” (“A better life for broilers,” Sept/Oct 2018). As a decades-long advocate for chickens, I know the difficulty of characterizing them in a way that respects and evokes who they are rather than reducing them verbally to how they are used. For this reason, I respectfully urge that you not use “broiler” as a noun, but only as an adjective modifying the word “chicken.” Calling chickens broilers discourages empathy toward them. “Broiler” is a sad burden for these birds to have to bear along with all the other burdens we force them to endure. Please don’t call them “broilers.” They are chickens.
– KAREN DAVIS, president of United Poultry Concerns
EDITOR’S NOTE:
You make an excellent point, and we appreciate you taking the time to share it. We will be more mindful of how we use the term “broiler” in our content.
For more on the naming of farmed animals, see
Chicken or Broiler, Cow or Steer, Owner or Guardian?
– Liberating the Language of Animal Abuse