The catching and transport of broiler chickens to slaughter is associated with significant injury, distress, and mortality, representing a welfare crisis at the end of the broiler production cycle.
Catching and transport represent a welfare crisis concentrated in a few hours at the end of a broiler life. Manual catching by workers grabbing chickens by the legs causes wing and leg fractures in a significant proportion of birds — injuries that cause acute pain for however long the bird survives before slaughter. Birds transported in summer heat in overstocked crates experience severe heat stress. Dead on arrival birds represent cases where welfare failure was so severe that animals died before slaughter could occur. The welfare improvements available — mechanical catching trained workers, appropriate stocking densities in transport crates, temperature monitoring, and reduced transport times — are known and achievable but not consistently implemented.