Huge sporting events are a time of celebration, and millions of people across the U.S. and beyond tune in to watch the Super Bowl, while 83,000 fans fill the stadium for the live spectacle. But beneath the fun and excitement lies a brutal reality: the staggering suffering that has taken place just to put food on the table. 

The U.S. National Chicken Council announced that a shocking 1.47 billion chicken wings¹ were consumed over the weekend of the Super Bowl. That number is almost too large to comprehend, but what’s even harder to fathom is the suffering behind it. The chickens who died for these sports snacks came from atrocious conditions on factory farms. 

Chickens raised for meat, otherwise known 'broiler chickens', are almost exclusively factory farmed. They have been genetically manipulated to grow at unnaturally fast rates, reaching their full slaughter weight in as little as 32 days. At barely over a month old, they are still just babies.

It can be argued that no farmed animal suffers more than chickens. They are crammed into vast sheds, packed tens of thousands at a time, up to 22 chickens per square meter. Their rapid growth causes severe health issues. Their oversized muscles, particularly their breasts, put enormous strain on their legs, often leading to painful deformities, lameness, and heart failure. Many of these birds struggle to stand, let alone move. 

Conditions on these farms are miserable and unsanitary. The barns remain uncleaned for the entirety of the birds’ short lives, leading to a build-up of waste and ammonia. This causes severe eye, respiratory, and skin diseases, leaving many chickens with painful burns on their feet from standing in their own waste. 

Chickens are intelligent and social animals that naturally forage, dust-bathe, and perch. But in the industrial farming system, they are deprived of every single natural behavior, leaving them in a state of frustration, boredom, and distress. 

No other farmed animal species has been subjected to such extreme genetic manipulation, overcrowding, and suffering as broiler chickens. Their short, painful lives are reduced to a single purpose: to meet unsustainable and downright unnecessary consumption demands.

The 1.47 billion chicken wings eaten over Super Bowl weekend cost the lives of 735 million individual chickens. This level of consumption is shocking. To put it into perspective: if you laid these chicken wings end to end, they would stretch a third of the way to the moon. 

The loss of millions of innocent lives is unnecessary and heartbreaking. 

While the Super Bowl stands out for its massive chicken wing consumption, other major sporting events across the globe drive demand for factory-farmed meat. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can all work towards the 3RS principle — Reducing the consumption of animal protein (e.g. meat and other food of animal-origin), refining food choices which promote excellent animal welfare standards and to ultimately replacing animal-based products with plant-based alternatives - options that don’t require the suffering and death of billions of animals. 

It’s time to rethink the way we consume food at these events. We can enjoy the game without contributing to cruelty. Let’s demand a better life for these animals, support plant-based options, and make animal-friendly decisions that do not reflect cruelty. 

The next time you watch a big game, ask yourself: is a moment of taste worth a lifetime of suffering?

_References: 

_{¹Americans to Eat 1.47 Billion Chicken Wings for Super Bowl LIX. National Chicken Council. 2024 [accessed 2025 Feb 10] https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/americans-to-eat-1-47-billion-chicken-wings-for-super-bowl-lix/}