Chicken slaughter methods vary significantly in welfare impact, with water bath stunning being the most common but not the most humane.
Chicken slaughter welfare depends critically on the effectiveness of stunning before killing. Water bath stunning causes fear from shackling and pre-stun shock in birds that miss the water bath, and some birds regain consciousness before neck cutting. Controlled atmosphere stunning systems eliminate the pre-stun shackling stress and result in effective unconsciousness before any handling. Transitioning slaughterhouses to CAS systems is one of the most impactful welfare improvements available for the billions of chickens slaughtered annually.