摘要：Summary Pre-slaughter stress aff ects the quality of animal meat and is subject to discussions in professional circles related to animal welfare. Causes of stress can be animal handling before coming to a slaughterhouse, unloading animals in an unknown environment, keeping them in a depot and inspection, then improperly conducted stunning and slaughtering. Regarding the length, acute and chronic stresses are diff erentiated. Each of them is refl ected in meat diff erently. Killing an animal should cause a minimum stress to it, so slaughterhouses should ensure human conditions before and during the slaughter. There are several objective indicators of animal welfare in slaughterhouses, and they are: the number of animals which slip or fall, the number of animals which have to be encouraged to move, their crying and behavior. Basic causes of problems related to animal welfare in slaughterhouses are bad equipment and methods, factors which distract and interfere with moving of animals, lack of education of slaughterhouse employees, weak maintenance of equipment and facilities, weak conditions of animals which come to a slaughterhouse, as well as genetic lines of animals which don’t handle stress well. Applying the animal welfare legislation in Croatia will only be possible through a constant education of slaughterhouse employees.
