Poultry slaughter involves more animals than any other livestock sector. The welfare impacts of stunning and slaughter methods affect billions of birds annually, making improvements here among the highest-impact interventions available.
Poultry slaughter welfare is determined by the stunning method, its correct application, and the handling that precedes it. Live shackling of conscious birds causes documented pain from joint dislocation and wing injury. Water bath stunners that are incorrectly calibrated fail to render birds unconscious before slaughter — a common occurrence. Controlled atmosphere systems avoid shackling conscious birds entirely. The scale of the problem — 70 billion birds annually — means that even small per-bird improvements in slaughter welfare have enormous aggregate impact. Regulatory requirements for CCTV monitoring in abattoirs are one of the most cost-effective welfare interventions available to governments.