Poultry Catching and Loading Welfare

Catching and loading poultry for transport to slaughter is one of the highest-risk welfare events in commercial poultry production, associated with significant injury and mortality.

Key Facts

Manual catching of broilers in dark houses involves grabbing birds by legs for transport
Injuries including dislocations, bruising, and broken bones are common during manual catching
Automated catching machines have reduced some injury types but created others
Roughly handled birds arrive at the abattoir with elevated stress hormones and compromised meat quality
Catchers working quickly under production pressure have little incentive to handle birds carefully

Welfare Considerations

The catching and loading stage represents a welfare bottleneck for billions of poultry annually. Manual catchers working on piece-rate incentives prioritise speed over gentleness. Birds grabbed by legs and swung into crates experience pain and fear. Automated catching machines reduce some injury types but create others through mechanical contact. The correlation between catching welfare and meat quality — bruised, stressed birds produce lower-quality product — creates a partial economic incentive for gentleness, but this incentive is often insufficient to overcome the speed pressure of contract catching. Welfare-aligned catching contracts with quality premiums for low bruising and injury rates, alongside mandatory catcher training, represent the most effective interventions.

What You Can Do

Support poultry welfare standards that include catching and loading requirements
Advocate for mandatory catching contractor training and competency certification
Ask poultry producers and retailers about their catching welfare monitoring programmes
Reduce poultry consumption or shift toward welfare-certified sources