Dossier

Killing on farm

Pigs are emergency killed on the farm for various causes. Reasons for killing on farm are, for example, piglets that are not viable or develop severe and incurable disease that occurs or worsens later in life. In these cases, it is always a case-by-case decision and is therefore referred to as euthanasia. On the other hand, sometimes pigs have to be killed on farm for reasons of animal disease control in order to prevent the spread of infections to other animals or humans. This is a large-scale killing, so the terms depopulation or mass-killing are used here.

Source photo: © FLI

This dossier aims to help Competent Authorities and other stakeholders with issues related to pig welfare in slaughterhouses at the time of stunning and killing.

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The legal requirements related to killing on farm can be found in Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009. The Regulation recognises that killing animals may induce pain, fear and distress even under the best available technical conditions. Therefore, any person involved in the stunning or killing of animals should take the necessary measures to avoid pain and minimise distress and suffering during the killing process, considering the best practices in the field.

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To avoid unintended welfare problems, the killing procedure must spare animals any avoidable pain, distress or suffering. This implies that moving animals to the killing point and restraining them for the purpose of stunning and killing must be done without causing undue fear and distress. Operators must affirm death of animals by confirming the absence of vital signs of cardiovascular, respiratory and neuronal functioning. Best practices maximally limit stress during handling and killing processes (see ‘Show more’).

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Welfare indicators can be used to facilitate welfare inspections on farms and to identify welfare issues related to the killing process on farms. Farmers must confirm death of each animal killed on farm by checking the absence of vital signs of cardiovascular, respiratory and neuronal functioning. For this purpose, several indicators are described and combined in an indicator factsheet (see ‘Show more’).

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In collaboration with national training bodies and national reference centers on animal welfare, EURCAW-Pigs develops training guides for the different welfare topics as standards for national training in EU Member States.

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