Pre-slaughter stunning is intended to render poultry unconscious before killing. Effectiveness varies substantially by method and implementation, with significant welfare consequences for billions of birds annually.
Poultry slaughter at scale involves billions of individual welfare outcomes, most of which are invisible to consumers. Stunning is the critical welfare intervention — it is the difference between a bird experiencing slaughter consciously or not. The variability in stunning effectiveness across systems and facilities means that many birds globally are not effectively rendered unconscious before killing. Improving stunning standards — through better regulation, industry incentives, and consumer pressure — is a high-priority welfare intervention given the numbers involved.