Document type: report by Welfarm
Author: Welfarm
Preview: In France, 20 to 66 million farmed fish are slaughtered every year by the fish farming sector(Fishcount). Slaughter methods, performed with or without prior stunning, are very diverse. This diversity of slaughter methods is alsoobserved within the European Union, and more widely, at a global scale. [...]The diversity of stunning and killing methods, as well as the specificities of each species makes designing humane slaughter recommendations complex. Even though some stunning and killing methods have no benefit at all in terms of animal welfare, some methods have both strengths and weaknesses.
Scientific research about stunning methods, adequate stunning parameters, and their impactson fish is not very advanced, although publications on the topic have been increasing in recent years.However, it already appears that several methods, either traditional or more recent, are criticized due to the stress and pain they inflict upon animals.
The analysis described in this report seeksto describe the characteristics of the different stunning and killing methods in terms of animal welfare for the following four target species:rainbowtrout (Oncorhynchys mykiss), Atlanticsalmon (Salmo salar),European sea bass (Dicentrachus labrax)and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata).
These four species have been selected due to their importance in terms of production and/or consumption inthe French fish farming sector (Fishcount estimates, FranceAgriMer 2020,FranceAgriMer 2021).
In order to identifythe stunning and killing methods that ought to be phased out, improved orrecommended, an analytical framework has been developed. It is based on the main welfare hazards, i.e. factors likely to induce suffering, that have been identified in the scientific literature. Each stunningand killing method has been assessed in regard to those welfare hazards, according to a methodologybased on a grading system. This allowed us to divide slaughter practices in three categories. The first two categories are ethically uother small companion animalsceptable methods and recommended methods. For the latter group, a hierarchy of methods has been designed based on their potential in terms of animal welfare. Finally, the third categoryincludes methods that are characterized by a level of uncertainty which is too highfor them to be recommended for the time being.
This report is divided into four sections.In the first part, the main basis of scientific knowledge about the ability of fish to suffer are summed up. Then, the state of the legal situation surrounding farmed fish slaughter, and the components that are necessary to call a slaughter method "humane" are presented. The second part presents the methodology that we used and the welfare hazards that were considered within our analytical framework. Stunning and killing methods are then described and reviewed in the light of our analytical framework in the third part. Finally, the recommendations resulting from our analysis of the different stunning and killing methods are presented
