Catching and loading live broiler chickens for transport to slaughter is a high-welfare-risk operation, with mechanical catching systems offering welfare improvements over manual catching at scale.
Catching welfare is the welfare experience immediately preceding slaughter - birds with catching injuries carry those injuries into slaughter, compounding suffering in their final hours. The scale means that even low injury rates per bird translate to millions of individuals suffering per week. Mechanical catching systems show lower injury rates and represent a significant welfare improvement at scale. However, they are expensive and not all housing types accommodate them. Welfare-positive catching also requires trained catchers with appropriate technique and stocking density management that enables good catching access. Post-mortem welfare monitoring at slaughter plants that tracks catching injury rates and reports back to farms is one of the most powerful feedback mechanisms for improving catching welfare.