Farmed Animal Welfare

Farmed Salmon Pre-Slaughter Welfare: Crowding and Stress Reduction

The final hours before salmon slaughter are among the most welfare-significant in their lives, making pre-slaughter handling and crowding protocols a critical focus for improvement.

Key Facts

Pre-slaughter crowding of salmon can last 12-24 hours during harvest operations
Extreme crowding causes severe physiological stress including elevated cortisol and fin damage
Feed withdrawal for 24-72 hours before slaughter reduces gut content but causes hunger stress
Percussive stunning followed by gill cutting is the gold standard for rapid, humane salmon slaughter
Some facilities now use carbon dioxide stunning despite evidence it causes distress before insensibilization

Welfare Considerations

Pre-slaughter represents a concentrated period of welfare risk for farmed salmon where large numbers of animals experience stress in a short window. Reducing crowding duration, implementing effective pre-slaughter stunning, and training staff on welfare-centered harvest protocols can significantly reduce suffering. CO2 stunning, which is aversive to fish, should be replaced by percussive or electrical methods that achieve rapid insensibilization.

What You Can Do

Choose farmed salmon from producers certified by schemes requiring pre-slaughter stunning
Advocate for regulations requiring humane stunning before salmon slaughter
Support aquaculture welfare organizations developing better pre-slaughter handling protocols