Pre-slaughter stunning of poultry is designed to ensure birds are unconscious before killing. Understanding the effectiveness and welfare implications of different stunning methods guides better industry standards.
Poultry stunning welfare failures affect billions of birds annually even at low failure rates. The standard water bath electrical stunning system has inherent welfare problems beyond individual failures: birds must be hung alive on shackles, inverted, and transported to the stun bath — all processes causing acute stress and potentially injury. The evidence that inert gas stunning (CAS/CAK) produces better welfare outcomes is strong: birds become unconscious without the distress of live inversion and shackling, and the stunning failure rate is dramatically lower. The barrier to adoption is the capital cost of retrofitting slaughter facilities with gas stunning systems — a cost that industry has been reluctant to absorb without regulatory pressure. Consumer demand for higher welfare stunning, expressed through product choices and retailer engagement, can drive this transition.