FAQs

Stunning prior to slaughter is legally required in many countries including Australia. It is intended to cause unconsciousness so that slaughter may be carried out without fear, anxiety, pain, suffering, or distress. The most common methods to stun pigs are electrical stunning and exposure to high concentrations of carbon dioxide gas (CO2). Stunning with CO2 gas offers benefits over electrical stunning including the ability to stun animals in groups, with minimal restraint, less handling, and therefore potentially less stress before stunning. However, there are welfare issues with CO2 gas stunning, including: inhaling CO2 is unpleasant, painful; variability between pigs’ responses to CO2; pigs are not rendered immediately unconscious; and inhaling high concentrations of CO2 causes pain and difficulty breathing.

CO2 stunning is one of only two methods available to stun pigs in Australia, so the RSPCA Australia Standard for Pigs allows it under strict conditions. That’s because the RSPCA’s standards go as far as possible to raise the bar for animal welfare while still being commercially viable. This is crucial to the Scheme as the standards must be challenging but achievable, otherwise no change occurs at all. RSPCA Certified allows us to work directly with pig producers to raise the bar for pigs and show that higher welfare is a commercially viable option.

The RSPCA’s standards have a number of requirements for how animals are handled, stunned, and slaughtered at the abattoir, including the use of CCTV and principles of low-stress animal handling. RSPCA Australia Standards for Pigs have 88 separate requirements at slaughter (on top of 322 requirements on farm).

The RSPCA believes that humane slaughter is ‘When an animal is either killed instantly or rendered insensible until death ensues, without pain, suffering or distress’.

It is a legal requirement in Australia that animals slaughtered for food must be stunned prior to slaughter. The purpose of stunning is to ensure an animal is unconscious and unable to experience pain, suffering or distress before slaughter. Read more about humane slaughter here.

The ways in which animals are slaughtered (killed for food) are different depending on the species. Find out more about the slaughter and killing of farm animals on the RSPCA’s Knowledgebase. 

The RSPCA’s Standards for layer hens, meat chickens, turkeys, pigs, farmed Atlantic salmon, and dairy calves have specific requirements related to the end of life of these animals to make sure it is done in a way that minimises pain, suffering, and distress. 

The RSPCA Australia standards set specific requirements for the transportation, handling, stunning and slaughter of animals reared for food. In fact, there are on average 85 requirements specifically for slaughter within each standard. 

RSPCA Assessors conduct annual assessments at abattoirs, where animals from RSPCA Certified Producers are sent for slaughter, to make sure they are meeting these requirements. 

Included in the standards is the requirement for CCTV in any areas where live animals are handled or processed at abattoirs. CCTV must also be routinely monitored by authorised staff to ensure all requirements are being adhered to. 

Raising non-replacement dairy calves for veal or beef, that would otherwise be considered a by-product of the dairy industry and destined for slaughter at five days old, is one way to increase the value of the animal. 

By increasing the value of dairy calves and providing an alternative market, there is real potential to improve the welfare of some of the many tens of thousands of calves slaughtered each year. 

This requires systems change in the dairy and beef industries. Our team regularly engage with producers and brands to encourage non-replacement dairy calves to be reared to higher-welfare standards. 

Read more about how dairy calf welfare can be improved in our knowledgebase.

While the majority of Australian dairy cows spend most of the day on pasture, the RSPCA is concerned about welfare issues in the dairy industry, including the treatment of bobby calves, mastitis and lameness in cows, calf induction, and calf dehorning. You can read more about dairy production here. 

If you purchase dairy products, you can contact the makers of your favourite dairy products and ask them about their standards of care for cows and calves. Find out more here. 

The nature of beef and lamb farming in Australia means that animals generally aren’t affected by the same welfare concerns related to behavioural restriction faced by animals in intense confinement. However, these animals can still have poor welfare during painful husbandry procedures, feed lotting, transport, and slaughter.

The RSPCA continues to assess the feasibility of introducing higher welfare standards for cattle and sheep. In the meantime, as a consumer you can contact the makers of your favourite beef and lamb products and ask them about standards of care for their animals.

Maintaining better fish welfare by protecting farmed Atlantic salmon from predators, such as seals and sea birds is critical to RSPCA Australia. Fish are vulnerable to stress, injuries, and mortalities as a result of interactions with predators.

The RSPCA believes that exclusion measures must be the primary method of preventing seals and sea birds from attacking salmon. The RSPCA Australia Standard does not allow the use of bean bags, scare caps, electronic seal scarers and pingers. In instances where seals don’t swim out of pens on their own and as a last resort, in order to protect fish welfare, the RSPCA Australia Standard permits the limited use of crackers in accordance with Tasmanian Government requirements. You can read more about protecting farmed Atlantic salmon as well as seal welfare here.

In addition to meeting government regulations, aquaculture companies producing RSPCA Certified salmon must demonstrate ongoing conformance with a recognised, third-party certification scheme that promotes best environmental practice.

Salmon reared on farms by RSPCA Certified producers swim in oxygen-rich water with plenty of space to swim effortlessly, with a  focus on low-stress handling and ensuring stunning at slaughter. RSPCA Certified salmon producers are regularly assessed by specially trained RSPCA Assessors to make sure the Standard is met.

Find more questions and answers on how RSPCA Certified is improving the lives of farmed Atlantic salmon.

Aquaculture remains one of the fastest-growing animal protein production sectors in the world, so as an animal welfare organisation, the RSPCA considers it essential that farm animal welfare is seen as a crucial component of this. Like other sentient animals, fish can experience pain and suffering. So, it’s critical that when fish are farmed, their welfare is considered as a priority.

While there are currently no producers of RSPCA Certified salmon, the RSPCA Australia Standard for farmed Atlantic salmon exists because salmon are one of the most intensively farmed animals and it’s important we can demonstrate the measures needed to ensure their welfare is considered.

Find more questions and answers on how RSPCA Certified is improving the lives of farmed Atlantic salmon.

‘Sow stall free’, while a very positive improvement from the minimum legal requirements for pork production, isn’t a guarantee of welfare.

In sow-stall-free systems, pigs can still be kept in barren environments and sows (mother pigs) can still be confined to farrowing crates (similar to sow stalls) for weeks at a time to give birth to their piglets.

Sow-stall free is also not a certification label, but rather a marketing term. This means that aspects of the pigs lives will only need to adhere to the legal minimum, which the RSPCA does not believe goes far enough for animal welfare.

‘Outdoor bred’ is a marketing label used on products from pigs (pork, bacon, ham) that were born in a free-range environment before being raised indoors.

RSPCA Certified pigs that are bred outdoors requires piglets to be raised in eco-shelters once they’ve been weaned. There must be plenty of straw bedding from them to play with and forage in.

An independent certification scheme that is focused on animal welfare, such as RSPCA Certified, goes above and beyond the legal minimums and is key in ensuring and verifying better welfare for pigs on farm against a higher welfare standard.

Pigs reared on farms by producers with the RSPCA Approved certification are housed in groups with a comfortable, dry area to rest with bedding. Pigs are provided with plenty of space to move and can forage and socialise with other pigs.

RSPCA Approved pigs are never confined to sow stalls, farrowing crates or boar stalls. Nor are they subjected to painful husbandry practices such as tail docking, teeth clipping or surgical castration.

Whether they are raised entirely indoors, outdoor bred, or free range, there’s a focus on good animal welfare.

producers with RSPCA Approved certification must meet 410 requirements under the RSPCA’s detailed animal welfare Standard for Pigs, and are regularly assessed by specially trained RSPCA Assessors.