How slaughter plant management, design, and oversight affect the welfare of cattle, pigs, and sheep during the final hours of their lives.
Slaughter plant welfare represents the final opportunity to minimize suffering in the lives of farmed animals. The design, management, and oversight of slaughter facilities directly determines the quality of death experienced by billions of animals annually. Temple Grandin pioneering work on low-stress handling and facility design has demonstrably improved welfare in plants that adopt her approaches. However, continuous improvement requires ongoing oversight — welfare standards that are not monitored deteriorate over time. CCTV monitoring with regular review, third-party auditing, and meaningful accountability for welfare failures are the infrastructure needed to maintain welfare standards. Retailers and food companies that require Grandin-scored welfare audits as conditions of procurement create the market incentive for plant-level welfare improvement.