I posted this before, I am sure one of our archivists will post the link. I know a thing or two about chickens, and the chicken industry, and myself do not eat chicken due the high risk (IMHO) of nevela and trefa inherent in the modern processing realities. There is another level to this beyond the issue of how it plays out in the public square. The earliest mentions of the minhag reflect that your kaparrah was your local bird, in your courtyard, kitchen or yard. Your children might had given it a name. It was shechted in the home or very nearby. It was a much more personal experience, and virtually no Jews lived in anything tha could be compared to a metropolitan area> Thus you have the negative street publicity, and two disconnects from “the way it was” just considering the historical data that we have.
Another disconnect eludes most because we are for the most part, very urbanized, yet unschooled in finer working mechanisms of the gashmuis world. To most, chicken is generally a pink thing wrapped in cellophane bagged and boxed frozen. Unless you are buying from a breeder, a hobby farmer or a hatchery, there are no tarnegol zachar to be had commercially. They are all culled to be wings and fryers at two weeks development, before the bird matures, becomes a nasty character to deal with and with stringy and tough flesh. It is a kapporah in itself to manhandle a grown rooster.
But non are to be had, the operators are getting truckloads of pullets diverted from the trip to the processor, and often truckloads of spent laying hens that generally get gassed and batch processed into not for human consumption protein meal. These latter are the shmatta looking birds for whom the box and trip on the truck are not too different than than the regular inhumane way they lived as caged battery layers.
Summation: How irecognizable can our practice be from the original minhag, how many of the details are essential elements how much can change before we can rationally and emotionally can abandoon a minhag that is so distanced.? How long before we can say it is ok for a zecher of the minhag? When do the disconnects and public liabilities exceed the benefit?