Effective stunning before slaughter is essential to prevent chickens and turkeys from experiencing pain at death, but current methods have significant welfare gaps.
Pre-slaughter welfare for poultry is one of the highest volume animal welfare issues globally, given that over 70 billion birds are slaughtered annually. The transition from water bath to controlled atmosphere stunning would eliminate shackling stress for billions of birds but requires significant capital investment. Religious exemptions from pre-stunning requirements continue to generate debate about welfare versus religious freedom. The scale of potential improvement makes this one of the highest-impact areas for welfare advocacy.