The final hours before slaughter are a critical welfare window in which inadequate handling practices cause fear, pain, and severe stress that compromise both animal welfare and meat quality.
Pre-slaughter handling represents a final opportunity to minimize or compound the welfare burden accumulated during an animal entire production life. Cattle that arrive calm from good transport and are handled quietly through well-designed facilities with competent staff die in a better welfare state than those subjected to electric prods, crowding, rough handling, and inadequate stunning. The business case for good pre-slaughter welfare is unusually strong because poor handling directly reduces meat quality and causes economic loss — yet welfare problems remain widespread, indicating that the economic incentive alone is insufficient without regulatory enforcement and genuine management commitment.