"The birds are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures, and France’s torrid June took a heavy toll."
"They were meant to die, just not like this.
The chickens were 19 days away from a date at the slaughterhouse when temperatures climbed disastrously inside the long shed where they spent their nights. Over the course of several hours on June 23, during France’s hottest stretch on record, 1,500 keeled over. By the time Isabelle Renaudier opened the door, one-third of the flock was dead.
“It broke my heart,” said Ms. Renaudier, who had been raising the birds at her family farm in northwestern France for supermarkets, butchers and rotisseries.
Extreme heat poses a risk to nearly all living things, but chickens, unable to sweat and cloaked in feathers, are far more vulnerable than most. If temperatures become climb too high, they start to pant, a survival technique that can leave them dehydrated and sapped of energy."
Chico Harlan and Léontine Gallois report for the New York Times July 6, 2026.
