Common carp are farmed extensively in Central and Eastern Europe for food. Their welfare in pond and intensive systems raises questions about housing, handling, and slaughter.
Farmed carp welfare sits in a peculiar cultural context. The Central European tradition of buying live carp at Christmas and keeping them in baths before killing them at home involves extended live holding and often ineffective slaughter methods. Carp are sentient fish with nociceptive responses - welfare during slaughter depends critically on the effectiveness of stunning. Traditional knife-strike stunning is highly variable in effectiveness. Percussive stunning followed by immediate bleeding is the welfare-positive slaughter method, but this requires knowledge and equipment that home slaughter rarely provides.