Investigation shows farmed trout suffocating, haemorrhaging, and suffering from skull fractures in Scottish slaughterhouse

Footage published by Animal Equality reveals farmed trout being slaughtered in Ardnish, Scotland. Aquatic expert Chiawen Chiang of New York University reviewed the footage, captured in late August 2025, describing multiple protocol violations and “alarming rates of fishes suffocating on ice with traumatic brain injuries”.

The site is operated by SeaQureFarming Group, which acquired trout farms and abattoirs from major conglomerate Mowi in April 2025; the group boasts of ‘targeting higher fish health and welfare’. A Mowi-branded car was on the site at the time of filming and Mowi continues to provide data to the Scottish Government related to the site.

Thrashing in pain from debilitating injuries

The footage – collected across a two-day period – evidences:

• High numbers of fish exiting stunning machinery still conscious and “unambiguously showing signs of pain and consciousness” and “vigorous thrashing”.
• Fish frequently suffocating to death, an issue Chiawen Chiang attributes to the high kill rate which she argues is “too high to be reasonably managed by workers”.
• Trout escaping the slaughter machinery and being thrown directly onto ice. Trout can survive for over 10 minutes outside of water.
• Fish  ‘percussively stunned’ by workers and beaten with a baton, but not adequately killed, meaning they will regain consciousness and experience a “very serious and debilitating injury while also suffocating”.

Animal Equality submitted a formal complaint to the relevant authorities.

Evidence of inhumane killing methods

In its 2024 Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing, expert-led Government-advisory body – the Animal Welfare Committee – explicitly stated that: ‘The use of CO₂ saturated water, live chilling (with or without CO₂) and the cutting of the gills of conscious fish are not considered humane methods of killing and should not be used’.

These fish were violently handled, bludgeoned, thrown onto ice, and left to suffocate with devastating injuries in their final moments of life. The Scottish Government has known about the critical need for slaughter protections for farmed fish for decades, yet continues to stall, leaving millions of animals at risk of enduring similarly slow and agonising deaths. Every day of delay condemns more animals to extreme suffering.

—Abigail Penny, Executive Director of Animal Equality UK

A string of slaughterhouse abuses

This is not the first time that Animal Equality has exposed the mistreatment of farmed fish at slaughter, on large-scale intensive fish farms. In 2021, an investigation found salmon having their gills cut while conscious, in a 2023 investigation farmed fish entered stun-kill machinery backwards and smaller fish showed signs of consciousness after exiting the machine, while a 2024 investigation and further 2025 exposé revealed fish suffocating on multiple Scottish salmon farms. 

Hunger, aggression, prolonged fasting and failed stunning

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government released salmon slaughter guidance, prompting nine animal protection organisations to pen a letter to Government Ministers warning that this ‘falls short of the legal protections urgently needed’. And in March this year, Animal Equality UK and The Humane League UK, released an expert-led report on trout welfare at slaughter, authored by Professor Lynne Sneddon of the University of Gothenburg, Chiawen Chiang of New York University, and Dr Cynthia Schuck-Paim, Scientific Director of the Welfare Footprint Project. The leading academics argue that “all steps throughout the process of slaughter, including the pre-slaughter stages, compromises the welfare of trout at the time of killing”. Such welfare issues include hunger and aggression – an outcome of prolonged fasting before slaughter, crowding, poor water quality, rough transport conditions, and a failure to properly stun before killing. The experts also point to human and mechanical failures that can exacerbate these problems, including lack of adequate training, worker fatigue, rough handling of animals, poor equipment set-up and subjecting fish to live killing due to a failure to detect non-stunned animals.

Millions of animals at risk

The British Trout Association reports that there are almost 290 trout farms in the UK, with 17,000 tonnes of trout farmed and killed annually in Britain, equating to approximately 20 million trout slaughtered for human consumption each year. Approximately half of those trout are slaughtered in Scotland (54%), with the remainder killed in England and Wales (46%). In February 2025, Waitrose publicly committed to introducing electrical stunning for farmed prawns – a decision widely celebrated by consumers and animal advocates – but no such requirements have been put in place by retailers for farmed trout.

Join us in calling on the devolved UK governments to introduce legally enforceable, species-specific slaughter legislation for farmed fish, a proposal backed by government-advisory body the Animal Welfare Committee. 

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