The yabby (Cherax destructor) is Australia's most widely farmed freshwater crayfish, with welfare considerations for crustaceans gaining increasing attention in the sector.
Yabby welfare in aquaculture centres on stocking density, water quality, and processing methods. Overcrowding leads to aggressive interactions including limb loss. Water quality problems including low dissolved oxygen cause acute distress. Processing methods for yabbies in Australia, as for other crustaceans globally, are under review in light of evidence for crustacean nociception. Chilling in ice slurry before processing is considered more welfare-positive than direct boiling. The question of whether yabbies have meaningful subjective experience remains scientifically open, but applying precautionary welfare principles given the scale of production and uncertainty about sentience is increasingly advocated.