Guidance

Slaughtering poultry, rabbits and hares on farms for small-scale suppliers

Know how to stun or kill poultry, rabbits and hares on small-scale farms.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 16 October 2015
• Last updated: 5 June 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

This guidance is for small-scale and seasonal suppliers.

You must be competent to handle, stun or kill animals. You risk losing your licence or prosecution if you do not follow these and other Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing requirements.

When you’re classed as a small-scale supplier

You’re classed as a small-scale supplier if you:

• slaughter less than 10,000 birds, rabbits or hares per year on your farm
• supply the birds, rabbits or hares directly to the final consumer or to local shops
• supply meat within your own county and the adjoining counties (or no further than 50 kilometres from your county’s border)

You still count as a small-scale, local supplier even if you sell poultry to the whole of the UK in the 2 weeks before Christmas, Easter and Michaelmas (usually in late September).

On-farm slaughter of more than 10,000 birds

You’re also classed as a small-scale supplier if you slaughter more than 10,000 birds on your farm and you’re a member of an assurance scheme approved by the Food Standards Agency and you either:

• dry pluck by hand
• slaughter for fewer than 40 days per year

Poultry awaiting sale

You must make sure that poultry being offered for sale are put in accommodation where they can stand upright, turn and stretch their wings without difficulty.

You must also give the poultry food and clean water as soon as possible.

Restraining animals

You must restrain animals before you can stun or kill them. If you’re using stunning equipment on an animal’s head, your restraining equipment must present the animal’s head in a way that allows you to stun it accurately.

Your equipment for restraining animals must:

• allow you to stun or kill an animal effectively
• prevent injury, cuts or bruises
• minimise struggling and vocalisation
• minimise the time an animal is restrained

You must follow the manufacturer’s instructions when using equipment to restrain animals.

What you must not do

You must not handle any animal in a way that causes it pain. You must not:

• strike or kick an animal
• press sensitive areas of an animal’s body that would cause pain or suffering

• use prods or other pointed implements

• twist, crush or break an animal’s tail
• grasp an animal’s eyes

One animal at a time

You must finish stunning and bleeding one animal before moving onto the next animal.

Stunning animals

You must stun all animals before you kill them.

Stunning and killing equipment

Your equipment must allow for a quick and effective stun and kill. You must maintain all stunning and killing equipment according to the manufacturer’s instructions. This must be done by people who are properly trained.

You must keep a record of the maintenance work carried out for at least a year.

Back-up equipment

You must install back-up equipment so that you can use it quickly if your main equipment fails. You must keep it close by and it must be in good working order.

Simple stunning

‘Simple stunning’ causes an animal to lose consciousness but does not kill it instantly.

After stunning an animal, you must immediately use another method to kill the animal.

Gas stunning (for poultry only)

If you take birds out of crates before they go into a gas stunner, you must handle them with care to spare them any avoidable pain or distress.

You do not have to notify the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) if you’re gas stunning for small-scale slaughter. You must give APHA 5 days’ notice if you plan to gas birds for management reasons, for example culling.

Gas stunning equipment

Gas stunners or any equipment that conveys birds into the gas must be designed to avoid injuring birds – you must follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Gas stunners must be able to maintain the correct concentration of gas.

You must use a gas stunner which allows you to:

• monitor the animals to check they are not experiencing avoidable pain, suffering or distress while you’re stunning them

• flush the stunner with air with the minimum of delay if you need to enter the chamber to access the animals in case of an emergency, for example if the machinery breaks down

You must make sure:

• gas stunners and their conveyors do not injure the birds
• poultry are put in the stunner in a way that minimises pain, distress and suffering

Monitoring poultry in gas stunners

You must be able to visually monitor the poultry.

Gas stunners must have a monitoring device that displays and records the concentration of gas.

The monitoring device must display a warning and sound an alarm if the gas concentration falls below the legal level. No bird must go into or remain in the stunner if:

• there’s a problem with the gas stunner
• the alarm goes off
• the gas concentration falls below the legal level

Gas mixtures

To kill poultry by gas, you must use one of these mixtures:

• carbon dioxide at high concentration (you must not use this for ducks and geese)
• carbon dioxide in 2 phases
• carbon dioxide mixed with inert gases
• inert gases

You must not allow gases to enter the chamber (or the location where animals are to be stunned and killed) in a way that could create burns or excitement. This could be caused by the gases, by freezing or lack of humidity.

You must only stun poultry by gas if each animal is exposed to the gas for long enough to make sure it’s killed.

Carbon dioxide at high concentration

You must not use this method on ducks and geese.

The minimum concentration is 40% carbon dioxide.

You must make sure that no animal enters the gas stunner if the carbon dioxide concentration by volume falls below 40%.

Carbon dioxide in 2 phases

Expose the animal to gas with a maximum concentration of 40% carbon dioxide. When the animal is unconscious, use a higher concentration of carbon dioxide to kill it.

Carbon dioxide mixed with inert gases

For poultry you must make sure that gas concentrations by volume are at most:

• 20% carbon dioxide
• 5% oxygen

Inert gases

Expose conscious animals directly or progressively to gas containing an inert gas mixture (such as argon or nitrogen) leading to anoxia.

You must make sure that the oxygen gas concentration by volume is no more than 2%.

After gas stunning

You must make sure birds stay in the gas for long enough to make sure they’re dead. You must wait until the birds are dead before you carry out any other operation on them.

Non-penetrative captive bolt

If you use a non-penetrative captive bolt device, you must avoid fracturing the skull.

You must use the correct strength of cartridge or propellant - find out what this is by reading the manufacturer’s instructions.

Penetrative captive bolt

If you use a penetrative captive bolt, you must:

• use the correct strength of cartridge as stated in the manufacturer’s instructions
• position the device so the bolt enters through the cerebral cortex (top of the brain)
• check the bolt has retracted to its full extent after each shot – if the bolt has not fully retracted, you must not use the device until it’s repaired

Head-only electrical stunning

If you carry out electrical stunning:

• there must be a good electrical contact with the animal
• electrodes must span the brain of the animal and be adapted for the size of animal
• the current must be strong enough to make an animal unconscious until it’s dead
• you must kill the animal immediately after it becomes unconscious

The equipment must have a device to show:

• the length of time you’ve applied the current to an animal
• the voltage and current

Minimum currents (in milliamps) for head-only electrical stunning:

• chickens – 240 milliamps (mA)
• turkeys – 400mA

The minimum currents for rabbits and hares are not set out in the legislation.

Cervical (neck) dislocation for poultry

You can only use manual cervical dislocation if:

• the bird weighs less than 3kg
• there are no other methods available

You can only use manual cervical dislocation on a maximum of 70 birds a day.

You can only use mechanical cervical dislocation if:

• the bird weighs less than 5kg
• there are no other methods available

Killing poultry, rabbits or hares

The place of killing must be near to where the animals are held and avoids unnecessary handling of animals. After simple stunning, you must use a method such as bleeding to kill the animals.

To kill poultry, rabbits or hares by bleeding, you must cut the 2 carotid arteries in the neck.

You must bleed the animal:

• immediately after simple stunning
• before it regains consciousness

If you kill poultry by bleeding, you must leave them to bleed out for at least:

• 2 minutes (turkeys and geese)
• 90 seconds (all other birds)

You must wait until the birds are dead before you do anything else to them, including scalding.

Automatic neck cutters must cut both neck arteries. You must kill the bird straight away by another method if they do not.

Published 16 October 2015
Last updated 5 June 2023 + show all updates

1. 5 June 2023

   Content has been reviewed as part of improvements to the welfare of animals at the time of killing pages. Updates approved by Welfare at Slaughter team.

2. 16 October 2015

   First published.