Slaughter facilities in low- and middle-income countries often lack stunning equipment, trained personnel, and welfare oversight, causing preventable suffering at the end of animals lives.
The final moments of a farm animal life deserve the same welfare consideration as every other moment. In much of the world, slaughter without effective stunning means animals die while conscious, experiencing the physiological distress of blood loss. This is not an irreducible feature of low-income country slaughter — it is a gap in equipment, training, and oversight that targeted investment can close. WOAH standards provide the framework; what is needed is the political and economic commitment to achieve them.