Pre-slaughter handling and stunning methods for poultry significantly affect the welfare of billions of birds in the final minutes of their lives.
Poultry pre-slaughter welfare involves multiple stressors that can be minimised through improved systems. Shackling conscious birds — hanging them upside down from metal shackles — causes significant acute pain and panic. Water bath stunning failures, while relatively rare as a percentage, represent enormous numbers of animals given the scale of poultry production. Controlled atmosphere systems that stun birds in their transport modules eliminate shackling stress and reduce handling. Transitioning to CAS systems represents a significant and achievable welfare improvement for the most numerous land animals killed for food.