Poultry slaughter methods affect billions of birds annually, with significant welfare variation between conventional and improved systems.
Poultry slaughter welfare is a significant unresolved issue because the scale of birds slaughtered annually makes even small improvements in individual bird welfare enormous in aggregate impact. The conventional waterbath stunning system causes welfare concerns through the shackling and inversion process before stunning, which is distressing and potentially painful for conscious birds. Birds that are not effectively stunned by the waterbath proceed to neck cutting while conscious, a scenario that welfare advocates and researchers have documented as occurring at measurable frequency. Controlled atmosphere systems address the pre-stunning welfare problem by rendering birds unconscious before any manual handling, though the gas exposure period itself causes some respiratory distress in the initial phase. The Better Chicken Commitment requirement for controlled atmosphere stunning or equivalent represents the most significant industry-level welfare commitment for poultry slaughter, covering hundreds of millions of birds when fully implemented.