Slaughter practices for billions of chickens, turkeys, and ducks cause significant welfare harm; improved stunning and handling methods can dramatically reduce end-of-life suffering.
Poultry slaughter welfare represents the largest single welfare challenge in animal agriculture by individual animal numbers. The stress of live-handling, shackling, and water bath stunning experienced by billions of birds annually is immense and largely unnecessary — controlled atmosphere systems can achieve unconsciousness before any handling begins, eliminating conscious stress at end of life. Transitioning the poultry industry toward pre-stunning systems that achieve rapid, painless unconsciousness before physical contact is among the highest-impact welfare improvements achievable in food systems.