Crayfish farming is growing globally, and evidence of crustacean sentience raises welfare questions about conditions in commercial crayfish operations.
Crayfish welfare deserves consideration for the same reasons that lobster and crab welfare does: the neurophysiological evidence for pain-like experience in decapod crustaceans applies broadly across the group. Farmed crayfish in high-density ponds experience aggression-related limb loss, disease pressure from crowding, and inhumane killing methods. The scale of crayfish farming — billions of animals annually in China alone — means that even modest welfare improvements would benefit an enormous number of individuals. Developing species-appropriate stocking standards and humane killing requirements for crayfish farming is an important welfare priority.