Pig slaughter practices significantly impact welfare, with stunning method quality and line speed determining whether pigs die in distress or pain or lose consciousness before killing.
Pig slaughter welfare is a critical end-of-life concern for 130 million individuals annually. Carbon dioxide stunning - the industry standard - causes several seconds to minutes of acute respiratory distress before unconsciousness. The CO2 burns mucous membranes and causes aversion responses - pigs actively try to escape. Electric stunning, when applied correctly, causes immediate unconsciousness but line speed pressures lead to improper application. Inadequately stunned pigs regain consciousness before or during killing, experiencing the full terror and pain of slaughter. Welfare improvements at this scale would affect the experience of death for hundreds of millions of animals.