That's ridiculous. Throwing out everything the chicken touches is just plain wasteful. Just don't cross contaminate. You can wash away bacteria, and its dies without a host. Also consider the fact that foodborne illness cannot go through your skin. Exposure to bacteria actually increases your immunity. Poultry might be prone to bacteria, but proper cooking and avoiding cross contamination will prevent illness almost indefinitely. They may as well throw out their plates and silverware, and rub themselves in hand sanitizer, because cooked chicken is no more or less prone to infection than raw chicken, the only difference is the cooking process kills bacteria, which can easily find its way back to the chicken given enough time.
You don't really need to clean chicken before cooking it(and can be more harmful, see comments). The concern that you sink will become contaminated is silly. You should just be sure to wash your sink and the countertops surrounding. Any organic matter will be a breeding ground for bacteria. If I put an infected bird in your sink, you'd likely be able to wash the bacteria out of your sink if you rinse with soapy hot water. They should consider cleaning what ever their chicken touches rather than throwing it away. I guarantee you that they achieve no benefit by taking these precautions. Wash your hands, wash your pans, and wash your counter tops. You'll be fine, and less wasteful.
There is no difference in the bacteria in chicken today vs chicken 30, 40, 50 years ago. Its probably not that they are young but simply squeamish or germaphobic. I've had food poisoning before from chicken, and its usually because it sat out too long after being cooked. In fact all foodborne illness I've had has been after the food was properly cooked and sat out in the "danger zone" too long. Given that people who ate this food an hour or so before I did had not become ill, though others who ate it after sitting out had become ill. Likely a stomach virus.
Addition(May 31, 2015):
A few people mentioned the decreased standards of the chickens living quarters. This makes the assumption that someone is buying a certain brand of chicken. Typically factory farms supply large food distribution companies nationwide(assuming the US), and therefore have a larger demand. I'm not saying it's morally just, but rather that typically your store bought whole chicken isn't from a factory farm. If you're worried about this, you should go to a butcher as they usually source from farms near by to avoid the large and unnecessary cost of sourcing produce from long distances. I cannot speak for every grocer, but from my own experience I typically see local/state brands. I grew up in and around farming communities most of my life and know that many of the companies that source produce in this state buy the produce from farmers who are sole proprietors, rather than what basically is a franchise owner for a factory farm. There's a big difference.
As far as genetically modified chickens, this is both irrelevant and some what naive in my opinion. We've selectively breed these chickens to carry more meat on their breasts. My aunt has a hobby farm and has raised these chickens. They are dumb, clumsy and mature quickly; therefore leading very short lives. It might seem cruel, but it's not a new practice either. In South Asia they've breed a domestic duck called the runner duck, which is flightless, therefore easier to raise. They're unable to walk, and unable to swim. Making it easy to keep them couped. These ducks were first bred in the late 1800's. So to claim that this is a new practice is simply not true. To say "genetically modified" is somewhat misleading, because it's not as if we have genetically engineered these chickens in a lab. They've simply been breed to our desirable traits. Again, this isn't to say I'm trying to justify it, but simply that it's irrelevant in both the sense that it has nothing to do with the cleanliness of the animal, and there's nothing to prove that selectively breed animals produce any harmful effects but on the contrary there's hundreds of years of history where humans have eaten animals who were selectively breed. Selective breeding is, in fact, part of what makes a domestic animal domesticated. If you own a dog, it was selectively breed to show traits desirable to humans.
Again, none of this is to imply any sort of moral justification, but that's completely irrelevant to this matter any how as we're supposed to be answering a question with facts and actualities, not skepticisms and one-off studies which cover a broad topic which likely doesn't even apply to this circumstance. What you provided may be educational and relevant in a loose context, but this isn't the place. It's simply irrelevant.
