Aquatic Animals

Farmed Salmon Welfare at Slaughter

Atlantic salmon slaughter methods vary widely in their humaneness, with electrical stunning and percussion methods offering significantly better welfare than live chilling.

Key Facts

Live chilling — immersing fish in ice slurry — keeps salmon conscious for up to 9 minutes while dying
Electrical stunning renders fish unconscious in under a second and is increasingly adopted
Percussion stunning followed by exsanguination is used in some premium welfare-certified systems
The UK requires stunning before slaughter for farmed salmon, but many other countries lack requirements

Welfare Considerations

The method of slaughter is one of the most consequential welfare decisions in salmon farming. A fish that is live-chilled experiences a prolonged dying process while fully conscious. Electrical stunning eliminates this suffering instantaneously. Retailers and consumers who accept higher welfare product specifications can drive adoption of humane slaughter industry-wide.

What You Can Do

Choose salmon from farms and retailers with documented humane slaughter commitments
Support certification schemes that include slaughter method requirements
Urge your government to mandate pre-slaughter stunning for farmed fish
Ask retailers and restaurants about their salmon slaughter welfare standards
Support industry bodies developing and enforcing humane slaughter guidance for fish