The handling of pigs at slaughter plants before stunning is a significant welfare event, with lairage conditions, driving methods, and facility design all affecting pre-stun welfare outcomes.
Pre-stun pig welfare at slaughterhouses encompasses a concentrated welfare event where multiple stressors converge at the end of the animal's life. Pigs arriving at slaughter are already stressed from transport, then placed into novel lairage environments with unfamiliar conspecifics - triggering the social hierarchy establishment aggression that pigs experience whenever mixed. The lairage period should allow recovery from transport stress but frequently compounds it through poor facility design, inadequate temperature control, and rough handling. The welfare costs are measurable through meat quality metrics, injury rates, and cortisol levels, creating an alignment between economic quality and animal welfare that better slaughter plant management can exploit. CCTV requirements in UK plants provide accountability for handling standards that self-reporting alone cannot deliver.