Deer farming presents unique welfare challenges because deer are prey animals with strong flight responses that make intensive handling, veterinary procedures, and confinement particularly stressful.
Farmed deer retain the acute stress responses of prey animals - their domestication is shallow compared to cattle and pigs, and they never lose the flight response to human approach. Routine management including mustering, handling for veterinary treatment, and transportation causes extreme stress responses that have direct welfare costs. Design of handling systems using low-height races with minimal visual and acoustic stimulation, trained handlers, and chemical restraint protocols appropriate for deer physiology are essential welfare standards in deer farming.