Effective stunning before slaughter is the single most important welfare protection for farm animals at the end of life, yet stunning failures and exemptions remain common globally.
The moment of slaughter represents the most acute welfare intervention point in farmed animal lives, yet it remains one of the most poorly monitored. Stunning failures leave animals conscious during throat cutting, causing extreme pain and terror. In high-throughput systems, the pressure to maintain line speed creates incentives to overlook poor stunning rather than stop the line. Religious slaughter exemptions, while reflecting legitimate cultural and religious freedoms, create welfare costs that are difficult to quantify but real for individual animals. The installation of mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses has demonstrably improved compliance and represents a model for other countries.