Slaughter welfare for poultry represents one of the highest-volume welfare interventions possible, with billions of chickens, turkeys, and ducks processed annually under conditions that vary widely in their welfare implications.
Slaughter welfare matters profoundly given the billions of poultry affected annually. The transition from water bath to controlled atmosphere systems eliminates the conscious handling and shackling distress that affects enormous numbers of animals in conventional processing. While the transition involves capital investment, the welfare benefit — eliminating a stressful process that precedes stunning for billions of birds — is proportionally enormous. Prioritizing slaughter welfare improvement represents one of the highest-impact interventions available in farm animal welfare.