Poultry Catching and Loading Welfare

The catching and loading of poultry for transport to slaughter is a high-intensity welfare event causing injury and distress, yet it receives relatively little regulatory attention.

Key Facts

Broilers are typically caught at night when they are less active and more easily handled
Manual catching involves grasping multiple birds by one or two legs simultaneously
Mechanical harvesting machines have been developed to reduce injury but are not universally adopted
Wing fractures, dislocations, and haemorrhaging are common injuries during catching operations
Trained catching teams with welfare monitoring produce measurably better outcomes than untrained crews

Welfare Considerations

Catching and loading is often described as the highest-intensity welfare event in the life of a broiler chicken, combining acute pain from rough handling with fear, temperature exposure, and loss of control. Injury rates during catching can be substantial even under well-managed conditions. The use of inverted shackle hanging adds additional stress before stunning. Mechanical catching machines that use gentle rotating fingers reduce some injury types but can cause others and remain expensive for smaller farms. Welfare monitoring at catching events, operator training, and reduced target catching rates are the most practical immediate improvements.

What You Can Do

Support poultry welfare certification schemes that include catching and loading welfare standards
Advocate for mandatory injury monitoring and reporting during catching operations at all commercial poultry farms
Choose poultry from farms that use trained catching crews with verified welfare protocols
Engage retailers to require catching welfare standards from their supply chain farms
Support research into lower-stress catching methods including improved mechanical harvesting designs