Beak trimming distaste,
yet long beaks lead to poor health.
Best of a bad bunch?
Sometimes it’s better to cause harm for the right reasons rather than allowing worse harm to occur. Egg-laying barn hens typically have their beaks trimmed to reduce pecking damage but this practice results in pain and sensory loss for the birds. As a result the practice of beak trimming is being debated worldwide and some countries have already banned it based on welfare concerns.
Riber and Hinrichsen (2017) compared the welfare of trimmed and non-trimmed flocks of hens across 10 separate farms and across 62 weeks. They found that beak trimming actually resulted in higher conditions of hen plumage, skin and keel bones, as well as decreased mortality. Whilst beak trimming seems distasteful, this evidence suggests that it may be the best option after all.
Original research: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2017.00222