Slaughter is the end point of most farmed animal lives; high-welfare slaughter practices minimise suffering at this critical moment through good design, training, and monitoring.
Slaughter is the moment when the welfare history of a farmed animal ends, and it deserves as much attention as any other phase of production. The gap between high-welfare slaughter — swift, effective, minimally stressful — and poor slaughter practice is large, and filled with real suffering. Evidence shows that slaughterhouse design, staff training, monitoring systems, and management culture are all critical variables. The argument that slaughter is instantaneous and therefore irrelevant to welfare fundamentally misunderstands the welfare significance of the pre-slaughter period: the approach, lairage, and handling that precede the kill. Improving slaughter welfare is achievable with investment and will, and its benefits are distributed across billions of animals annually.