Second Livestock is a proposed virtual world for chickens, created by Austin Stewart as a design project and conversation starter about animal husbandry. It imagined confined birds seeing an open landscape through VR headgear, but the 2017 coverage described an idea—not a system shown to work on chickens or improve their welfare.
What was Second Livestock?
Second Livestock was Stewart’s concept for giving chickens in physically confined housing a simulated free-range environment. Futurism’s May 16, 2017 article identified Stewart as the project’s founder and an associate professor at Iowa State University’s College of Design. He said the aim was to prompt discussion about how people house animals: “I feel like this is more of a design project, to get people to have a conversation about animal husbandry.” He also drew a parallel with human living conditions: “We live in boxes, just like the chickens we eat.” (Futurism, May 16, 2017)
What would the chickens see?
The imagined environment was an open, game-like space with simulated everyday features such as food and water, but no predators. Futurism described it as multiplayer, without AI-controlled characters. Those details describe the proposed virtual world; the article does not report observations of chickens using it.
Was the VR headset tested on chickens?
No animal trial is reported in the 2017 article. It says that putting VR headgear on chickens was still an idea and would require approval from committees at Stewart’s university. It does not establish that chickens wore the equipment, accepted the simulated world, or experienced any welfare benefit. (Futurism, May 16, 2017)
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Can virtual reality make confined chickens happier?
The available account cannot answer that. It gives no measured welfare outcomes, named study, or numerical results for Second Livestock. Stewart himself raised the uncertainty of whether animals would accept a virtual world, asking whether chickens could “suspend disbelief” as humans might; his answer was, “I don’t know.”
Futurism also quotes Stewart saying research suggested free-range chickens could show signs of stress and injuries such as broken bones or legs. The article does not identify that research, its methods, or figures, so those statements are attributable to Stewart rather than independently established comparative findings in the coverage. The article does not provide evidence to compare physical housing and space, opportunities for natural behavior, stress, or injury across systems.
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What is known about the project’s status?
The source is a historical account from May 16, 2017. It establishes the concept and its proposed purpose, but does not establish whether the project later received approval, underwent animal trials, or became commercially available. A VR headset should not be treated as a ready-made solution: the account presents animal headgear as an unapproved proposal, not a chicken-compatible product demonstrated in use.
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