I could go one step further and say it'd be a little hypocritical unless you grew your own food, wove your own clothes from your own cotton, and built your own house from lumber you grew and cut and rocks you quarried and moved on your own property with your own two hands.

We consume on so many levels, food is only one layer. You'd have to give up just about everything including money if you really wanted to make a legitmate claim about non-impacting the environment and living a healthier life. I know a few strict vegetarians that are as obese and unhealthy as any meat eater, and a few old, lean injuns that barely ever eat anything but meat. It isn't a health choice or an environmental choice, so it must be strictly a lifestyle choice that people go for the vegetarian thing, so far as I can tell. That's absolutely acceptable, long as they don't try and peddle it for anything more than what it is.

Some chickens are raised that way., some are allowed to play in groups in yards. Ultimately it is a question of economics. I don't find much difference in my cooking using chicken breasts that sell regularly for $1.79 a lb vs. those that sell for $2.99 a lb, except that I save a boodle. Likewise with regular eggs vs, those "organic" variety. Nobody that eats my food seems to be able to tell the difference none either. Now they can tell right away when I am using grouse or chukar or pheasant.

For me ethics is also a factor. There's a limit to how much suffering I'm prepared to inflict on other animals in order to save a dollar.

(There's just been a couple of TV series about chickens in the UK, so it's currently a hot topic.)

IMHO cruelty is to be avoided to the extent it practically can be. Not so much because it inflicts pain on other sentient beings. But because of the morally corrosive effect gratuitously or needlessly inflicting pain has on the person inflicting the suffering.

Torturing small animals is one of the red flags warnings of a child turning into a sociopath.

If you must kill, for whatever reason, then some care should be taken to do it as humanely as reasonably possible. You shoot the rabid dog to eliminate a clear and present threat, to end the suffering of the infected animal that will die tortured, and because there aren't other practical options.

We are talking about chickens here folks. Let's get a grip. Look where we are..Around the Campfire!!!
Kill'em, skin'em, and eat'em.

Some chickens are pretty tough...

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Yep, I remember Grandad making me hold the legs on a hen he had to get ready for dinner. He swung that axe, and I ended up holding on to a pair of chicken handlebars on one of the craziest rides of my life. That hen kicked her legs and flapped her wings and dang near beat me into the ground, all the while Grandad and Uncle Jimmy were standing there laughing so hard they couldn't breathe, while I am going "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!". I ended up covered in blood and feathers and Lord knows what else, but I never let go of them drumsticks!

It weren't the first time I seen how dinner was got, but it was the first time I realized how much work it was to get it done.