Mother hens feel empathy for their chicks

Researcher Jo Edgar said: “We found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of ‘empathy’; the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.”

The researchers used chickens for this study because in commercial farming, as they pointed out, “chickens will regularly encounter other chickens showing signs of pain or distress due to routine husbandry practices or because of the high levels of conditions such as bone fractures or leg disorders.”

Scientists have also found that hens can anticipate future events based on previous experience, and make judgements accordingly; they have over 30 different calls for clear communication with each other; and chicks can count!  But these abilities and the sentience of hens and chickens are sadly disregarded in commercial farming conditions. Today’s study on hens and empathy gives yet more weight to the urgent need for more humane farming systems, in which animals can carry out their natural behaviours. Animals are sentient beings, and  what happens to them, matters to them.

For information about farm animal welfare and how you can help end factory farming,  please visit Compassion in World Farming.

Sources: 
The foundations of empathy are found in the chicken. University of Bristol press release, issued 9 March 2011. http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2011/7525.html

‘Avian maternal response to chick distress’, J L Edgar, J C Lowe, E S Paul, C J Nicol, published online ahead of print Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 9 March 2011

Socialising in the village square. (c) Compassion in World Farming/Chi Keung Wong

Pigs are very chatty, communicating with grunts, squeals, snarls and snorts, champing their jaws and clacking their teeth. Sows have a special call for their piglets when it’s time for the piglets to suckle. Sows and piglets keep contact with each other and with their mother by squeals and grunts. If piglets are separated from Mum, they squeal for her. Scientists found that sows responded more strongly to the desperate squeals from cold, hungry piglets than they did  to calls from larger, more well-fed piglets.

Animals can also understand each other’s language. For example, some animals can understand the meaning of another’s alarm call.

Dogs and humans have a long history of living together. While dogs are often quick are picking up what humans are saying – perhaps by the tone of voice rather than by all the actual words – we humans often seem to struggle to understand dog ‘bark language.’ In this really interesting video, courtesy of the social networking site Petstreet ,  dog communication expert John Rogerson helps us decipher what our furry friends are wanting to tell us.

It takes an illuminating look at the sentient animals in today’s farms. Watching wild boar and junglefowl, who are the ancestors of today’s farmed pigs, chickens and hens, we see that our ”modern” farm animals still have many of the behaviour patterns of their wild cousins.

Perhaps the maternal drive is the strongest natural feeling. Image: Compassion in World Farming/Karen Playford

 Modern factory farms are very far from nature. A hen in a barren battery cage cannot even spread her wings, let alone carry out other natural behaviours that are so important for her physical and psychological well-being.

Piglets in a crowded and barren concrete pen have little chance to enjoy their young lives and in boredom, may turn to biting the tails of  their fellow piglets – a sad cycle of distress. Their mothers may be kept in sow stalls and farrowing crates. These are effectively cages, so narrow that the sows can’t even turn around.

The scale of industrial animal farming also takes a heavy toll on the environment, the world’s water and its cereal crops. Excessive consumption of meat and dairy can harm human health.

If we have fewer farm animals in better conditions, there are big advantages for the animals, people and the planet.

Farm animals are sentient beings who have feelings that matter to them, and given the right conditions, they can enjoy their share of life’s pleasures.

In higher welfare conditions, farm animals can enjoy their share of life's pleasures

Standard documentaries about wild animals under threat often do not tell us what we can do help. While modern commercial breeds of farmed animals are not at risk of extinction, their welfare arguably is!

Farm Animals and Us 2 informs us about what we can do to help protect their welfare. Well-managed free range and organic farms can offer a much better chance for a quality of life. We can choose to consume less meat and milk, and choose only animal products from higher welfare systems.

The film is suitable for general interested viewers and is widely used in schools and colleges for students of 14+ . You can watch the film on YouTube, in three parts of 10 minutes each, or please contact us for the DVD.

Here are links to the film:
Part One – Pigs and the natural behaviour of wild boar; intensive pig farming; free-range alternatives.
Part Two -  Hens and chickens and the natural behaviour of jungle fowl;  intensive egg production; free-range alternatives; intensive meat chicken (’broiler’) production. 
Part Three – Animal sentience; feeding the world; economics and sustainability.

For youngsters, Compassion offers the film Farm Animals and Us, also in three parts on YouTube or again, contact us for the DVD.

Farm Animals and Us 1
Part One -     What we know about the sentience of our farm animals
Part Two -     How intensive farming developed; farming of meat chickens (’broilers’).
Part Three - Food chains and energy; choices we make about the meat and dairy we buy.

Mother hen and chicks. Image: Compassion/Gordon Ratcliffe

Baby chicks of only 3 or 4 days old can add and subtract. A  news article today reports that researchers tested youngsters to see if they could work out different quantities of small plastic balls.

In natural conditions, chicks and hens would live in small groups. It seems likely that their amazing ability to count at such a young age is important to help them survive.

Other research has found that some non-human primates, monkeys and dogs can count too and that “monkeys perform approximate mental addition in a manner that is remarkably similar to the performance of the college students”!