On-farm euthanasia of sick and injured animals is a critical welfare action; evidence-based methods that achieve rapid insensibility prevent prolonged suffering in animals that cannot be treated.
On-farm euthanasia is a welfare obligation when animals cannot be transported to veterinary facilities and cannot recover from their condition. Failing to euthanise promptly when an animal is suffering constitutes a welfare failure as serious as any other. The methods available — captive bolt, free bullet, or injectable barbiturate — all achieve rapid insensibility when correctly applied, but all require training and equipment. The welfare gap between ideal and actual practice in on-farm euthanasia is significant in some farming systems, where reluctance to call a veterinarian for euthanasia, lack of training, or absence of appropriate equipment results in animals being left to suffer when they should be humanely killed.