Pre-slaughter stunning is essential for humane poultry slaughter. Different methods have different welfare profiles, and improving standards remains an active area of advocacy and research.
The welfare of poultry at slaughter depends critically on whether stunning reliably achieves unconsciousness before killing. Water bath stunning systems, while widely used, have documented failure rates that allow some birds to regain consciousness before killing or to be improperly stunned. Controlled atmosphere systems, while requiring significant capital investment, achieve higher rates of effective stunning and eliminate the live shackling and hanging that causes pain and fear in water bath systems. Improving slaughter welfare for the tens of billions of poultry killed annually would represent one of the most impactful single welfare improvements available in the food system.