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The living conditions of the raised by Perdue Foods are expected to improve now that America鈥檚 chicken producer has collaborated with leaders of animal advocate organizations to develop a series of animal welfare reforms.

The move comes amid a broad sea-change among American consumers regarding the ethical treatment of animals, both as food and as entertainment. From Perdue and McDonalds to聽SeaWorld Entertainment听补苍诲听迟丑别听Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, companies are rethinking the way they treat the animals in their care in response to consumer pressure to take a more compassionate approach.

Perdue Foods laid out plans for a more humane way to raise and slaughter its chickens on Monday, becoming the first major American company to pledge to abandon the industry鈥檚 standard method for killing birds. Rather than shackling birds and hanging them upside down 鈥� which often causes bruising and broken bones 鈥� before stunning and killing them, Perdue will kill birds with gases using a procedure called controlled-atmosphere stunning.

"It's a ," Josh Balk, senior food policy director at the Humane Society, told NPR.

In December, Mercy for Animals, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of farmed animals, released a video of an undercover investigation into a contractor with Perdue Farms showing chickens that were too overweight to walk and workers abusing the animals, which later resulted in felony charges.

These problems aren鈥檛 unique to Perdue 鈥� studies have found grown for their meat have trouble walking because of their unnatural size. But Perdue promised to take action.

Perdue for uncovering the abuse and vowed to improve oversight of the daily care of the animals, saying 鈥淢ercy For Animals and Perdue share the goals of preventing animal abuse and of improving poultry care,鈥� as CBS reported.

The company followed up with the Los Angeles-based nonprofit, inviting animal-rights activists from both Mercy for Animals and the Humane Society to develop the new standards aimed at not only a painless death for it chickens, but more active, healthy lives for them as well.

After consulting with the activists and farmers, Perdue set a goal of doubling the rate of its chickens鈥� activity in the next three years, which should help to prevent the birds from growing to such unnaturally large sizes. Perdue pledged to outfit 200 poultry houses with windows by the end of the year and follow through with its other 4,000 houses that are still artificially lit if the windows prove effective in increasing chicken activity. Other changes include and expanding the space chickens have to roam, as The Baltimore Sun reported.

Jaya Bhumitra, director of corporate outreach for Mercy for Animals, who worked with Perdue officials on developing the plan, told The Baltimore Sun it was a ". We're heartened that Perdue not only took notice but also action after illegal animal cruelty was discovered in its supply chain."

The improvements won鈥檛 be immediate, and the company hasn鈥檛 committed to a firm timeline. Perdue promised to implement controlled-atmosphere stunning in a second facility, in addition to its turkey plant where it鈥檚 already used, only by the end of 2017, followed by gradual implementation in its .

Perdue already stepped out ahead of the industry in terms of animal rights with its 2015 announcement that while competitors like Tyson Foods and Foster Farms working to eliminate the use of antibiotics were still far behind that benchmark.

The commercial pressures to embrace more humane practices are getting stronger. Some聽 say it鈥檚 very important that companies 鈥渁void inhumane treatment of animals,鈥� up six percentage points from 2013.

are among companies that give purchasing preference to chicken suppliers that switch to controlled-atmosphere stunning, and KFC Canada has committed to buy from them exclusively.

Jim Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms, told NPR that socially-conscious customers were a driving force behind the change. Especially Millennials "want to make sure that聽. With the least stress, the least discomfort," he said.