Self Portrait Bust
2021
Broiler Chickens 1950 - 2013
2021
Broiler chickens, chickens grown to kill are bred to produce more mass with the same amount of food or less, in less time. “The time needed to raise a “broiler”—a chicken raised for meat—dropped from 12 weeks to six or less, the feed required fell by half and the growth rate multiplied by four”, According to Karen Lange. A chicken that grows faster with less food and less time makes more money. This enables the lack of care to create humane environments and living conditions since they are rewarded with more profit. “A 2014 study by researchers at the University of Alberta, Canada, observed. - At the same age, the 2005 breed had grown to about four times as heavy as the 1957 breed, despite being fed the same food”, Evie Liu reports. When a chicken grows to a size much larger than their bodies are made to handle, they collapse under their own weight. This creates hell-like living conditions where chickens, within a few weeks of life, are confined to the spot they collapsed, unable to move. As the ASPCA put it, “Hidden behind the closed doors of factory farms, most of the nearly nine billion chickens raised in the U.S. each year are selectively bred to grow so large, so fast that many struggle to move or even stand up. With disproportionately large “white meat” breasts, and bones and organs that often can’t support their huge and distorted bodies, many of these birds spend much of their lives lying down in their own waste, with open sores and wounds that act as gateways to infection”. In 2013 broiler chickens were about twice the size that they were in 1950, and today, broiler chickens can be 4 to 5 times larger than they were before this selective breeding process began. “But less well-known is the fact that the core problem for these birds starts long before they are even born: in effect, these birds are bred to suffer”, ASPCA.
The chickens I created are meant to represent the size comparison of chickens from 1950 - 2013 however I regret that I didn't create a chicken from today, since that would have had a bigger impact. The colors I chose are meant to represent emotion. The black/ purple chicken represents the sadness and despair that accompanies the dreadful conditions created by selective breeding as well as their living conditions. The white/yellow chicken represents an unmodified chicken who can roam freely, however it is not to suggest that they are given better living conditions. It is also important to note the lack of laws protecting chickens, broiler and egg laying, from cruelty. However, that would be another subject.
ASPCA. “A Growing Problem Selective Breeding in the Chicken Industry: The Case for the Slower Growth.” 11/2015
Karen Lange. “Super-size Problem.” humanesociety.org. 3/1/2017
Evie Liu. “Why chickens are twice as big today as they were 60 years ago.” Marketwatch.com. 1/9/2017