Humane Slaughter Association - Open Philanthropy

Humane Slaughter Association — Wild-Caught Fish Welfare

Grant investigator: Lewis Bollard

This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. HSA staff also reviewed this page prior to publication.

The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of £430,915 ($570,402.19 at time of conversion) over two years to the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) to support research on ways to improve the welfare of wild-caught fish. This will allow HSA to seek proposals for a peer-reviewed and published systematic review of current fish slaughter practices, potential changes to the catching process to minimize suffering, and new stunning methods that could be more humane than current practices, economically viable for wide adoption, and feasible for on-ship use.

This follows our June 2017 grant and falls within our focus area of farm animal welfare.

Humane Slaughter Association — Fish, Crustacean, and Cephalopod Welfare

Grant investigator: Lewis Bollard

This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. HSA staff also reviewed this page prior to publication.

The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of £1,999,137 ($2,528,678 at time of conversion) to the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) to support research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid).

According to the best estimates we are aware of, fish account for about three quarters of all vertebrate farmed animals alive at any time.¹ Despite this, we are not aware of any major animal welfare groups that have campaigns focused on fish welfare, and we therefore believe that it is important to start building this area of farm animal welfare advocacy and research. Over the past year, we recommended three previous grants in the area of fish welfare: one to Eurogroup for Animals, one to Dyrevernalliansen, and one to the Albert Schweitzer Foundation.

This funding will allow HSA to seek proposals for research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid), and to translate related HSA publications. This work may take several years depending on the nature of the research applications received.

Lewis Bollard, our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, is uncomfortable with the phrase “humane slaughter,” but recommends this grant to reduce avoidable suffering caused by current slaughter practices.

Sources

DOCUMENT	SOURCE
Farm Animal Statistics, Open Philanthropy Summary	Source

Humane Slaughter Association — Farm Animal Welfare Advocacy in China

HSA Technical Officer Jade Spence (right) giving a presentation on poultry welfare requirements during slaughter at the 5th Chinese Veterinary Conference held in Qingdao in October 2014. Image ©: HSA

Grant investigator: Lewis Bollard

This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. HSA staff also reviewed this page prior to publication.

The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of £331,458 ($419,236 at time of conversion) to the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) to support its work to improve farm animal welfare in China. HSA plans to use this grant to translate its guides on humane handling, transport, stunning, and slaughter into Mandarin Chinese and publicize the translated publications in Chinese agriculture industry magazines. It also plans to pay for HSA staff to travel to China to lecture at veterinary universities and train staff at slaughterhouses and livestock markets, and invite Chinese officials for an expenses-paid study tour of slaughterhouses and livestock markets in the United Kingdom. We are excited about this project’s potential to reduce suffering and institutionalize farm animal welfare values.

Sources

Document	Source
Humane Slaughter Association China Project Proposal	Source