The transport of poultry to slaughter involves some of the highest documented welfare risks in the livestock sector, with catching, loading, and journey conditions causing significant injury and mortality.
Poultry transport is a welfare hotspot. The process of catching, crating, transporting, and handling birds before slaughter involves multiple sequential stress events in animals that are already physiologically compromised by growth rate genetics. Injuries during catching — broken bones, dislocations, bruising — are documented at rates suggesting millions of birds are injured annually in the UK alone. The shackling of live birds at slaughter plants, by far the most common method of restraint before stunning, is among the most welfare-compromising routine practices in modern food production. Controlled atmosphere stunning beginning in the transport container offers a pathway to eliminating much of this suffering.