The slaughter of 70 billion broiler chickens annually involves multiple welfare challenges including live shackling, electrical stunning reliability, and the experience of inversion and transport to the killing line.
The killing of broiler chickens at industrial scale involves a series of handling events that, at best, cause brief distress and, at worst, involve conscious birds experiencing painful or terrifying procedures. Inversion and shackling are known to cause distress, and electrical water bath stunning has significant failure rates leaving birds inadequately insensible before killing. Controlled atmosphere systems represent a genuine welfare improvement by eliminating conscious handling during the killing process, but adoption is limited by capital costs. Improving slaughter welfare at this scale would reduce suffering for tens of millions of birds daily.