The period from farm to slaughter is among the most welfare-significant in an animal's life, involving transport stress, lairage holding, and the slaughter process itself. Effective stunning is the critical intervention that determines whether death is humane.
The transport-to-slaughter process involves multiple welfare risks. Journey stress from loading, motion, temperature fluctuation, and social disruption causes measurable cortisol elevation, injury, and for long journeys, death. Lairage conditions before slaughter affect the animal's final hours — noise, unfamiliar environments, and inappropriate mixing of groups cause fear and aggression. Effective stunning is non-negotiable for humane slaughter, yet failures occur due to poorly maintained equipment, operator error, and inadequate monitoring. Post-cut insensibility must be verified before any dressing procedures begin. Welfare at slaughter is a highly technical domain where small improvements in equipment, training, and monitoring can prevent enormous quantities of suffering across billions of animals annually.