European and Japanese eel farming raises serious welfare concerns alongside significant conservation issues from wild eel population declines that drive capture of wild juveniles for farming.
Eel farming welfare presents the unusual situation of a farming sector that simultaneously threatens wild conservation and causes significant individual animal welfare harm. The inability to close the eel life cycle in captivity means farming depends on wild capture of juveniles, directly threatening wild populations. Individual welfare during farming includes crowding stress, handling during grading, and inhumane killing methods including live electrical shocking and drowning in ice that do not achieve rapid insensibility. The conservation and welfare case for dramatically reducing eel consumption is compelling given both wild population collapse and farming welfare problems.