Poultry Catching and Lairage Welfare

The final hours before slaughter — catching, transport, and lairage — cause significant but often overlooked welfare harm in poultry.

Key Facts

Broiler catching involves teams lifting birds by one or two legs in the dark
Approximately 2-4% of birds sustain injuries during catching operations
Lairage (holding area before slaughter) can involve hours of waiting without food or water
Thermal stress during holding kills tens of thousands of birds annually
Carbon dioxide stunning is increasingly replacing electrical stunning in poultry slaughter

Welfare Considerations

The catching and pre-slaughter phases of poultry production cause significant acute suffering that receives less attention than chronic welfare issues. Mechanical harvesters and trained catching teams reduce but do not eliminate injury rates. The multi-hour journey from farm to slaughter without food or water causes metabolic stress, and temperature extremes during transport and lairage cause both suffering and mortality. Improving welfare in these final hours requires investment in infrastructure and stronger regulatory requirements.

What You Can Do

Support improved pre-slaughter welfare standards in poultry regulations
Advocate for mechanical harvesting adoption as a lower-injury alternative to hand catching
Reduce poultry consumption to lower the number of birds passing through high-risk handling
Choose products from farms certified to have improved catching and transport standards
Support slaughter plant auditing that includes pre-slaughter phases