Turkey slaughter welfare involves specific challenges related to the size, behavior, and physiology of turkeys that require careful management to minimize suffering.
Turkey slaughter welfare is compromised by the widespread use of electrical water bath stunning that requires birds to be hung inverted by their legs before being rendered unconscious. Inversion and shackling is painful and frightening, causing struggling and injury in birds who are already in a stressed state from transport and lairage. Electrical stunning does not always achieve complete insensibility in all birds due to variations in contact, current, and individual variation. Controlled atmosphere killing systems that render birds insensible before shackling eliminate the welfare cost of the inversion period and ensure more reliable insensibility, representing a significant welfare improvement. Consumer demand for higher-welfare turkey products can incentivize adoption of better slaughter systems.