The final moments of farmed salmon lives are often the most welfare-compromised. Improving pre-slaughter handling and stunning is one of the most impactful reforms available in aquaculture.
Pre-slaughter handling is the welfare crisis point for hundreds of millions of farmed salmon annually. Crowding during harvest causes intense stress and exhaustion. Traditional slaughter methods including CO2 asphyxiation and live icing cause prolonged conscious distress before death. Percussion stunning followed by immediate gill cutting or spiking is the only currently available method that reliably induces rapid unconsciousness. Major retailers and certification programs have begun requiring improved stunning, but uptake remains incomplete. Farm investment in better slaughter equipment pays welfare dividends for hundreds of millions of individual animals every year.