Growing evidence of nociception and pain processing in shrimp challenges the aquaculture industry to improve welfare standards for billions of animals currently treated without any welfare consideration.
The welfare of farmed shrimp represents a frontier in animal welfare thinking. If shrimp have capacity for pain and suffering - which emerging evidence suggests they may - then the welfare implications are vast given the scale of production. Billions of shrimp are farmed in conditions that prioritize production efficiency over any welfare consideration, and are slaughtered using methods that would be considered deeply problematic if applied to species whose sentience is not questioned. The appropriate response to uncertainty about shrimp sentience is precautionary attention to welfare, not the current near-total disregard.