The catching and transport of poultry to slaughter is one of the highest-risk welfare events in the production cycle, with injuries, thermal stress, and fear causing significant suffering.
Catching and transport are acute welfare events that concentrate risk from multiple sources simultaneously. Birds that have never experienced handling suddenly undergo rapid mechanical capture, confinement in high-density crates, loading onto vehicles, and transit in unfamiliar environments. The fear response - sustained rapid heartbeat, wing flapping, and vocalisation - represents genuine distress for each bird regardless of whether physical injury occurs. The injury rate during catching is a systemic problem driven by speed pressures on catching teams rather than individual handler carelessness. Slower, more careful catching with smaller team sizes, combined with lower stocking density in transport crates, demonstrably reduces injury rates but increases labour costs per bird.