Pre-slaughter handling of farmed salmon causes significant welfare harm through crowding, air exposure, and inadequate stunning, with improved methods offering meaningful welfare improvement at commercial scale.
Salmon pre-slaughter welfare represents a tractable improvement opportunity — effective stunning methods exist and can be implemented at commercial scale, yet are not universally required or adopted. The welfare harm from conventional slaughter without prior stunning is significant and prolonged relative to the brief period of stun-to-slaughter that alternatives require. Industry adoption of improved slaughter practices has occurred in higher welfare supply chains, demonstrating commercial feasibility. The primary barrier is cost and inertia rather than technical impossibility. Certification requirements and retailer specifications that mandate effective stunning before slaughter have proven effective at driving adoption in markets with sufficient consumer and retailer pressure.