The transport of poultry to slaughter is among the most welfare-compromising phases of intensive production, causing thermal stress, injury, and death to millions of birds annually.
For intensively farmed chickens, transport is often the most acutely traumatic experience of their short lives. Manual catching involves grabbing live birds by their legs - a terrifying, painful, and physically injurious process causing bone fractures, dislocations, and hemorrhage. The journey to slaughter in open crates exposes birds to extremes of temperature, wind noise, and unfamiliar stimuli. Birds that arrive dead at slaughter have died from the stress of transport itself - a welfare failure that is also economically costly. Regulatory improvement and technology adoption could substantially reduce transport welfare costs.