Over 70 billion chickens are slaughtered for food annually worldwide, and the welfare of birds at slaughter depends critically on stunning methods, line speeds, and handling practices that vary enormously across facilities.
Poultry slaughter welfare is compromised at enormous scale by the combination of extreme line speeds, imperfect stunning equipment, and cost pressures that discourage investment in higher-welfare methods. The scale is staggering: welfare failures affecting even 0.1% of birds processed represent millions of individual animals per year in large facilities. Water bath electrical stunning, while common, has documented failure modes that cause conscious birds to reach slaughter. Controlled atmosphere CO2 systems cause distress during induction. Inert gas systems using argon or nitrogen offer superior welfare but require significant capital investment. Line speed regulations, mandatory stunner calibration, and CCTV monitoring requirements are among the regulatory tools available to improve welfare at this critical intervention point.