Stunning before slaughter is required to render poultry unconscious before killing, but method effectiveness and welfare outcomes vary significantly.
Poultry pre-slaughter stunning is a critical welfare intervention whose effectiveness varies dramatically with method and implementation. Water bath stunning, while widely used, has inherent limitations — birds may avoid contact with the water or receive insufficient current for full unconsciousness. The inversion and shackling process before water bath entry is painful and causes wing flapping that indicates distress. Controlled atmosphere systems eliminate shackling-while-conscious but CO2 has documented aversive properties at high concentrations. Ongoing development of better stunning methods and enforcement of existing requirements are both necessary welfare priorities.