Pangasius slaughter methods in major producing countries often lack pre-stunning protocols, meaning billions of individual fish may experience conscious slaughter annually.
Pangasius slaughter welfare represents a massive-scale welfare concern that is almost entirely invisible to consumers purchasing this widely available fish. Without pre-slaughter stunning, fish are conscious during bleeding, experiencing what behavioral evidence suggests is pain and distress for the minutes it takes to lose consciousness from blood loss. The scale — hundreds of millions of fish processed annually — means even a small probability of meaningful pain experience represents an enormous aggregate welfare burden. European consumers of pangasius are effectively outsourcing welfare standards they would require of domestic producers to supply chains with no equivalent requirements.