Livestock Welfare during Transport, Marketing & Slaughter

HSA International Conference - 30 June & 1 July 2022, Edinburgh UK

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Queen Street, Edinburgh UK

The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) held its first international conference in six years in Edinburgh on 30 June and 1 July 2022. Talks were also livestreamed and recorded for those colleagues who were unable to join the event in-person.

The programme included six sessions covering the welfare of animals during transport and the pre-slaughter period, the welfare of animals during stunning, slaughter and killing, and novel developments.

The conference included a special focus on the welfare of aquatic species at slaughter, including crustaceans and cephalopods. These sessions were timely with both decapod crustaceans and cephalopod mollucs recognised as sentient in UK law six weeks prior to the conference.  

Attendees heard from keynote speakers Bob Elwood (Emeritus Professor Queen’s University, Belfast), Will Jackson (Chief Strategy Officer, AHDB) and Claire White (Senior Veterinary Advisor, NFU) in addition to Dr Mette S. Herskin, the winner of the 2022 Humane Slaughter Award, who spoke about her work with cull sows.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the conference, as staff, speakers, chairs, and delegates. We hope that you found the conference as informative and enjoyable as we did.

Abstracts for all of the talks can be found here, and recordings of all of the talks can be found on our YouTube channel. The recordings of the talks are free to view but, if you are able to, please consider making a donation to the HSA to enable us to continue our vital work helping to improve the welfare of livestock animals beyond the farm gate. None of our work, including this conference, would be possible without the generosity of our members and supporters.

Contact Details:
HSA, The Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, AL4 8AN, UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 1582 831919; Website: www.hsa.org.uk; Email: events@hsa.org.uk