Effective stunning before slaughter is essential to ensure poultry are unconscious before being killed. Current methods vary widely in welfare effectiveness, and significant reform is needed across the industry.
Poultry slaughter welfare represents one of the largest-scale welfare challenges in animal agriculture. The shackling of live birds in inverted suspension causes acute pain and stress before they reach the stunner. Water bath stunning of shackled birds may not achieve full unconsciousness in all birds. The scale means even small percentages of welfare failures represent tens of millions of animals annually. Controlled atmosphere killing — particularly using inert gas (nitrogen or argon) to induce rapid unconsciousness before shackling — represents the gold standard for poultry slaughter welfare. Consumer pressure for higher-welfare products and regulatory requirements for improved stunning methods are both needed to drive industry-wide improvement.