Pre-slaughter handling in Atlantic salmon aquaculture is a critical welfare intervention point where crowding, air exposure, and stunning method all determine the degree of suffering at death.
Pre-slaughter welfare in Atlantic salmon represents a critical intervention point where handling decisions made in minutes determine whether billions of individual animals experience pain and distress at the moment of death. The scale of salmon production means that welfare improvements to slaughter practice translate to suffering reductions for enormous numbers of individuals. Electrical stunning when properly applied achieves immediate unconsciousness without the aversive experience documented for CO2 immersion. The welfare gap between best-practice electrical stunning and common commercial practices including live chilling without prior stunning is large and urgently requires regulatory and market pressure to close. Consumer demand for welfare certification that specifically addresses slaughter standards is a powerful lever for change.