Livestock mortality management — how dead animals are disposed of on farms — intersects with biosecurity and environmental conditions that affect the welfare of surviving animals and surrounding wildlife.
Livestock mortality management welfare is a peripheral but genuine welfare topic. Proper mortality management prevents pathogen buildup that causes disease in surviving animals; improper disposal creates disease vectors that affect farm welfare broadly. Emergency composting of large culling events raises welfare questions about the methods used in mass killing prior to composting. Scavenger wildlife near composting or rendering facilities face welfare risks from pathogen exposure and attractant-induced human conflict. The welfare case for proper mortality management is primarily about preventing indirect welfare harm to living animals on the farm and in surrounding ecosystems.