Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies can cause mass animal welfare events on farms — emergency planning reduces animal suffering when crises occur and improves recovery for affected animals.
Farm animal emergency planning is a welfare issue that receives attention only after catastrophic events expose its absence. Millions of pigs, chickens, and cattle drown, die of heat, or suffer prolonged distress in emergencies that could be partially mitigated with advance planning. Mass culling events during disease outbreaks cause welfare emergencies when appropriate killing methods are not pre-approved and pre-resourced. The welfare case for farm emergency planning parallels the case for human emergency management: a small investment before crisis reduces the scale of suffering when crisis arrives. Regulatory requirements for farm emergency planning with animal welfare provisions are a legitimate welfare governance tool.