Summary
With the support of the NALSAR Animal Law Centre, we are launching a multi-phase project aimed at introducing and scaling pre-slaughter stunning for farmed fishes in India.
The first phase of this plan—an RFP on foundational questions about implementing stunning in India—is now live, and we encourage interested researchers to respond here.
The Problem: How Farmed Fishes are Currently Killed
As part of our farm program, our team spends a lot of time driving around rural India, visiting farms and meeting farmers. This program enables us to have an impact on water quality—and, to a lesser extent, on stocking densities—and we feel good about that.
However, sometimes our program associates come across what is euphemistically called a “harvest”: This is when the fishes are captured in a long dragnet, pulled from the water, and left in the air to asphyxiate. It’s a process that we estimate lasts up to several hours, and is likely horrific for the animals who experience it.
Indian major carps asphyxiating to death. Many individuals were still alive when this photo was taken.
Unfortunately, this method of slaughter is not an exception: virtually all of India’s billions of farmed fishes are killed in this way, and the same is likely true for tens of billions of other farmed fishes around the world.
There is, however, a solution to this welfare issue: pre-slaughter stunning. Stunning renders animals unconscious before they are killed—whether electrically or percussively—a process that has already become standard practice for farmed fishes in parts of Europe.
For a long time, the thought of changing how fishes are killed in India felt frustratingly out of reach. The barriers to implementing stunning just seemed insurmountable: a lack of consumer demand, no accessible stunning technology, and an informal fish farming industry that appeared resistant to large-scale technological change.
But recently, we’ve become a little more optimistic. Our broadened research mandate, coupled with the success of our peer organization Shrimp Welfare Project, which demonstrated that stunning can be viable even for species previously thought difficult to stun, has given us the confidence to begin pursuing stunning for these animals.
The rest of this post outlines our plans to do so.
Our Plan to Develop Stunning in India
There are still significant challenges to implementing stunning in India, and doing so will be a complex project. For these reasons, we’ve opted for a multi-phase approach, where each phase will build on the insights of the previous one, and where we will only move forward if/when we have sufficient confidence to do so. Here’s how we plan to proceed:
Phase 1: Foundational Research (Current RFP): This phase focuses solely on answering key questions about the target population, barriers and incentives, and scalability of stunning technology. If the research finds insurmountable obstacles or insufficiently promising avenues to proceed, we will not proceed further. This is the current phase we are working on—see more below.
Phase 2: Development of a Theory of Change (TOC) and Target Product Profile (TPP): Should the research indicate viability, we will develop a theory of change outlining how the target population could be incentivized to adopt stunning in the long term. Additionally, we will establish a target product profile to define the desired characteristics of a stunner suitable for this population.
Phase 3: Development of Stunning Technology: If the TOC and TPP indicate a viable path forward, this phase would involve the development of stunning equipment for the Indian context. Specific details here remain uncertain, although they could involve another RFP process—but this time focused on technology development.
Phase 4: Pilot Testing and Implementation: If suitable technology is developed, it will be piloted with early adopters to assess its welfare impact and economic feasibility in real-world conditions. Further implementation will depend on successful outcomes from this phase.
Phase 5: Scaling and Broader Adoption: If pilot testing is successful, we will then focus on scaling this technology. It is our ultimate ambition that no farmed fish, in India or anywhere else, suffocates to death.
Optimar’s Stun and Bleed System, which stuns fishes electrically before cutting their gills to kill them. Stunning of farmed fishes is becoming increasingly commonplace in Europe—we are seeking to contextualize it for India.
Overall, we expect this process to take several years to complete. We are also aware that, at some point, we may encounter a barrier that proves insurmountable—for example, the current lack of consumer demand for stunned fishes in India could present a significant challenge.
Despite this, we firmly believe that all farmed animals should be spared needless pain before they are killed. We are confident that, in time, the animal agriculture and aquaculture industries will shift in this direction. Even if we do not succeed right now, we hope our work today will help pave the way for that future progress tomorrow.
Note also that we are fortunate to have the support of the NALSAR Animal Law Centre for this project.
The Launch of Phase 1: Foundational Research Request for Proposals (RFP)
We are now accepting proposals for the first phase of our project: An RFP commissioning a research project focused on answering what we believe are three foundational questions:
Target Population: Which stakeholder groups within India’s aquaculture sector are most likely to adopt pre-slaughter stunning technology?
Incentives and Barriers: What economic, logistical, cultural, or market-driven factors could incentivize or hinder the adoption of stunning technology?
Pathway to Scalability: What strategies or adjustments will be required to scale stunning technology across the aquaculture industry?
Interested researchers or organizations should submit a research plan, a timeline, a budget, and relevant experience by December 1. After that, if their proposal is selected, we expect the project to take about 3 months to complete.
The full RFP can be accessed below. We’d ask that our readers please share it widely, and as always are grateful for your support!
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