Pre-slaughter welfare for poultry involves catching, transport, lairage, and stunning — with water bath stunning being the dominant method in the EU but associated with significant welfare problems now driving reform.
Shackling of conscious birds for water bath stunning causes acute pain from hanging upside down and wing flapping against the shackle rail. Birds that miss the stunning bath are slaughtered fully conscious. Water bath stunning at inadequate current or immersion time produces incompletely stunned birds that regain consciousness. CAK systems avoid shackling conscious birds and achieve higher rates of effective stunning but require significant capital investment. The welfare case for transitioning to CAK is strong from both ethical and scientific perspectives.