The final hours before slaughter are among the most stressful in a pig's life. Pre-slaughter transport, lairage management, and handling procedures all significantly affect welfare outcomes at this critical point.
Pre-slaughter welfare affects the final experience of millions of pigs annually and is closely linked to the economic interest of producers through meat quality outcomes. The alignment between welfare and quality - stressed pigs produce worse pork - creates a commercial incentive for improvement that welfare concern alone may not. Low-stress handling techniques reduce both animal suffering and financial losses from quality defects. CCTV monitoring in slaughterhouses has proven highly effective in identifying and addressing welfare violations that human oversight alone misses. These complementary incentives make pre-slaughter welfare reform both an ethical necessity and an economic opportunity.