Approximately 300 million cattle are slaughtered globally each year, and ensuring effective stunning before slaughter is a critical welfare challenge that varies widely across facilities.
Slaughter welfare depends on the entire pre-slaughter experience — handling, lairage conditions, and the stunning process itself. Cattle that are calm and handled with low-stress methods before slaughter show lower distress indicators. Stunning failures, however, allow cattle to regain partial consciousness before or during bleeding, causing pain and distress. The gap between best practice and typical practice in commercial facilities remains large. Transparent welfare auditing and mandatory reporting of stunning efficacy are key tools for driving improvement.