The humaneness of poultry slaughter affects billions of birds annually. Current methods vary significantly in their welfare impacts, and significant improvements are achievable.
Poultry slaughter humaneness represents a welfare challenge of extraordinary scale — the billions of birds slaughtered annually mean that even small improvements in slaughter humaneness translate to enormous reductions in aggregate suffering. The welfare failures in conventional systems are well documented: shackling of live birds causes pain and fear; electrical water bath stunning is frequently inadequate; and the interval between cutting and loss of consciousness can be prolonged. Controlled atmosphere systems eliminate several of these failure points by allowing birds to remain in transport modules until rendered unconscious by inert gas or modified atmosphere. Consumer and regulatory pressure for CAK adoption has increased, but cost and infrastructure barriers slow implementation. Regulatory requirements for effective stunning would standardize welfare improvements across the industry.