The welfare of farm animals at the end of their productive lives — including on-farm slaughter, transport to abattoir and slaughter conditions — represents a critical welfare moment affecting hundreds of millions of animals annually.
End of life welfare is a moment of particular vulnerability for farm animals, where the quality of handling, stunning and killing directly determines whether their death involves significant suffering. Poor stunning technique is perhaps the most common cause of preventable welfare harm at slaughter — unstunned or incompletely stunned animals recover consciousness before or during killing. Transport in unfit animals causes suffering that is both direct and preventable. The closure of small local abattoirs has increased transport distances and travel times for many farm animals, worsening end of life welfare. Investment in mobile and local slaughter infrastructure, alongside stronger enforcement of transport and slaughter welfare standards, represents one of the most direct welfare interventions available.