Emu farming produces oil, meat, and leather from one of the world's largest birds, but remains a niche industry with limited welfare regulation and significant knowledge gaps about the behavioral and environmental needs of emus in commercial settings.
Emu welfare is a poorly studied area with significant knowledge gaps. Wild emus are nomadic over vast distances — commercial farming necessarily restricts this movement substantially, raising questions about how this affects their wellbeing. Their social structure, environmental needs, and behavioral repertoire in commercial settings are not well characterized in the scientific literature. The limited regulation of emu farming in most countries means welfare standards vary widely between operations. The industry is small enough that welfare advocacy organizations have historically given it little attention, meaning that improvements are largely driven by individual producer practice rather than external standards. Basic welfare principles — adequate space, species-appropriate social groupings, good nutrition, and competent handling — apply but are not consistently enforced.