Over 400 billion shrimps are farmed annually, more than any other animal in aquaculture. Yet shrimp welfare receives minimal attention in welfare policy, consumer choice, and research investment relative to the staggering numbers involved.
Shrimp welfare is the most numerically significant and most neglected animal welfare issue. The scale of suffering — hundreds of billions of animals living in chronically stressful conditions — dwarfs all other farmed animal welfare issues combined. The precautionary principle strongly applies: the evidence for crustacean sentience is sufficient to warrant welfare consideration. Eyestalk ablation causes clear pain responses and chronic physiological abnormality — it is the most obvious single practice requiring elimination. Pre-harvest mortality at 40-50% means hundreds of billions of shrimps die slowly in degraded water conditions each year. The Shrimp Welfare Project provides the most focused welfare advocacy for this neglected population, identifying tractable interventions with enormous potential impact per dollar spent.