Farm Animal Welfare

Farmed Turkey Welfare: Slaughter and Pre-Slaughter Handling

Turkey slaughter welfare is shaped by transport, lairage and stunning quality, with live shackling of conscious turkeys before water bath stunning being a significant welfare concern.

Key Facts

Turkeys are conventionally shackled alive and inverted before water bath electrical stunning
Inversion causes distress, wing flapping and potential injury before stunning
Controlled atmosphere killing (CAK) avoids conscious shackling and is increasingly adopted
The Better Chicken Commitment does not yet apply to turkeys but similar campaigns are emerging
Multi-step controlled atmosphere stunning with inert gas avoids the aversive phase of high-CO2 systems

Welfare Considerations

Live shackling of turkeys causes acute fear and physical stress before stunning. The inversion and restraint of a large, panicking bird causes significant welfare harm in the minutes before stunning. Controlled atmosphere killing systems that gas birds in transport containers before shackling eliminate this welfare event. The transition to multi-step low-CO2 CAK systems represents the most impactful slaughter welfare improvement for turkeys.

What You Can Do

Support campaigns for mandatory CAK adoption in turkey slaughter operations
Ask supermarkets about slaughter methods used by their turkey suppliers
Advocate for turkey welfare to be included in higher welfare labelling schemes
Learn about the welfare science of turkey pre-slaughter stress