Question: why did you decide to work with chickens?

Louise Pendry answered on 15 Mar 2010:

Hi, I knew I wanted to work in animal welfare research but originally I was going to work with dogs or cats. Then, I found out about how poor the welfare of chickens are. I wanted to carry out research which had the potential to have a major impact on the welfare of each animal and which made the lives of lots of animals better. Working with broiler breeder chickens had the potential to do as there are so many of them worldwide – more than 180 million – and the vast majority of them really hungry.

Try to imagine being so hungry that you are obsessed with finding food all day every day. So hungry that you try drinking loads of water and try eating anything you can – even your bedding – just to try and make yourself feel less hungry. That’s the life of a broiler breeder chicken. Thats why I wanted to work with hungry chickens. I wanted to be one of several scientists trying to help them feel less hungry coz it would be such a buzz if my work actually managed to help them.